Uzumaki Akiko: A remake
by anime-freak718
Summary: [Chapter 9 up!] Hiros Plan is in action just as Akiko finally meets with Gaara! And Naruto, Hinata, Sasuke and Sakura rush to the scene of the crime! But what about Neji, Tenten and Shikamaru? And what going on with Hisaki and Masumi! Definate Pairings
1. Default Chapter

Hey, my name is anime-freak718; this is a remake of my first fanfiction: Uzumaki Akiko. Some things will be different, but I will add some old things in, so the people who read my first fiction will recognize some things. I own Akiko, but not Naruto.

**Disclaimer: I own Akiko, and all the attacks/Justus and characters that I made up in this story.**

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**Chapter 1- Mission Accomplished and Iruka's Job**

Night. Beautiful night. No light. It burns. The cold wind blew across the sand village. She put the kunai knife aside and stared at her arm. Beautiful blood. Was she strong? Or was she just pretending all this time? Could she really forget him? How foolish she was… to think that she could forget that easily. It wasn't easy…at all. She smiled weakly. Burn the light. Burn the light. She couldn't be happy. If he was here…if he could see her now…he'd tell her to stop. Or would he? Maybe he wasn't like himself now. No, he was different. Not even a glance at her, not even a smile. What was wrong? She felt alone, all alone. It was happening all over again. But was it her fault? No. It wasn't. Something happened. She knew. But did he have to pull away so much?

She sighed. She got up and bandaged up her arm. A knock at her door. She turned around and walked to the door.

"Who's there?" she asked before opening the door. No one answered.

She pulled out her shurikens.

She heard a rumbling sound from beneath. An earthquake? No. It felt strange…Suddenly, the ground split open and strong roots grabbed her by the legs.

"What the…!"

The roots dug deep into her legs. She dropped her shurikens and closed her eyes. What the hell was going on? Suddenly, the door opened in front of her. She opened her eyes and looked out. But there was nothing there. A long, black shadow passed beside her. Then, a man in a long black coat stepped into the room. No…wait. He didn't have any legs! Or at least, she couldn't see them. All there was was the end of the coat, flying in mid-air. She tried to spot his eyes, but there were hidden under his black top-hat. He had blondish-whitish hair up to his shoulders. He was smirking.

Then, the black shadow reached up and gripped her neck. She couldn't breathe. The man reached into his pocket and took out a knife. This knife looked quite weird though. It was silver, and had strange lettering carved into the side. The man thrust the knife into her stomach.

She screamed out. Pain burst throughout her body. Tears formed into her eyes and ran down. Then, blackness enveloped around her. All she could see was the dark. Then, she heard nothing. Her head slumped down, and blood trickled out of her mouth.

"Mission accomplished"

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The warm breeze blew across Konoha. It was evening, and the sun was setting. On one street, there was a tiny little ramen shop. An eager genin sat there, waiting for his miso ramen. He smiled at looked around at all the people walking up and down the street. When his food was ready, he began eating, noisily of course.

"Naruto-kun!" called a small voice from behind him.

"Hm?" Naruto turned around and looked at the person who called him. It was Hinata Hyuuga, his friend.

"Hinata! Come sit here! Do you want some ramen?" he asked, calling Hinata over.

Hinata walked over to where he was sitting and sat beside him. She said she wasn't hungry, so she passed on that. They began talking and laughing. But then Hinata could feel eyes watching her.

She quickly told Naruto she had to go and left. Naruto just stared at her. When Hinata said she had to go, she seemed scared. Naruto brushed aside any more thoughts, and began eating the rest of his soup.

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The fifth Hokage sat in her chair, deep in thought. Piles of paper surrounded her. A sake bottle lay on the ground beside her desk. Shizune stood at the door of Tsunade's office. Tonton stood beside her and squealed.

"I called you here because….I think you should tell him. Tell him about her," Tsunade finally said after about an hour of thinking.

"Wha-! Me! Why me!"

"Because you're smart," replied Tsunade, looking confused.

"Why not someone who Naruto actually knows!" asked Shizune.

Tsunade snapped her fingers, as if a thought suddenly struck her.

"You're right! Bring me Konohamaru!" she exclaimed.

"Wha-? How-? Ko- Konohamaru!" Shizune shouted, shocked.

"Then who?" asked Tsunade.

"Why not Iruka!"

"I didn't think of that. Send him here immediately."

Shizune sighed.

"Come on Tonton," and then she left the building.

_ An hour later…_

"What! Why me!" yelled Iruka, shocked.

"Because you're smart," said Tsunade, confused.

Iruka sighed and left the building, in search of Naruto.

"I'd check the ramen shop first if I were you!" yelled Tsunade through the door. Iruka sulked and took off.

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Naruto finally finished his fourth bowl of ramen and sat back. All that ramen…and all for free too! (A/n he had coupons)

He turned and looked at the street and saw Iruka walking toward him.

"Iruka-sensei! Over here! Want some ramen?" asked Naruto, happily. Iruka shook his head and smiled nervously as he took a seat beside Naruto.

"What's up?" asked Naruto.

"Naruto…I have something to tell you," said Iruka. He concentrated on the table in front of him, suddenly finding it interested.

"What is it?" asked Naruto, suddenly serious.

"You…They've found your sister."

"Ok, I'm defiantly feeling the ramen now."

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That's it. The first chapter remake of Uzumaki Akiko. Tell me what you think. If you're an old reviewer, or reader, tell me which chapter you preferred, this one, or the last one. R and R! 

Anime-freak718


	2. Chapter 2

**sacred- aliance**: lolol, thanks for the review, It was just that one part I made it seem like Tsunade was dumb because I didn;t want the whole chapter to be serious, I wanted some kind of humor. But I'm sorry if it wasn't funny at all. And i absolutly loved your story! But i couldn't review it at the time because I was on my cousin's computer and my penname wasn't saved onto that computer (I usually keep my password on my computer because I usually forget it. Haha) But thanks for the review!

**Ling-Hao**: Ohhhh...Ok. I get what I did wrong. Thanks for the advice!

**anzpuffyhair**: lol, yeah I know I made Tsunade look dumb. But it was just that. And the shadow dude I will explain in this chapter and the girl doesn't have blond hair (I can see you weren't an earlier reviewer from my first version, but that's okay). She has light brown hair. But I'll describe how she looks like in the next chapter. But thank you!

** Complexity**: THIS IS MY SISTER! mwahahahahahaha, remember her! Yeah...she made "just for you" then those other short stories, and then the sequel for "just for You" and then me and her are making "Behind the scenes of Just for you" ITS SO FUNNY! mwahahahahahahahahaa, thanks for the reveiw!

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Welcome to the second chapter of Uzumaki Akiko: A remake. Old things? New things? You're gonna have to read to find out…

** Disclaimer: I own all my characters, including Akiko, and I own all the techniques/Justus' used in this story.**

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Chapter 2- Cold cellars and darkness

It was so cold. The chains held fastened to her wrists and ankles. She awoke to find herself in a deep, dark cold cellar. She shivered and struggled to hold her head up high to look around. She was surrounded by tables of knives and shurikens and other weapons. She started to feel a bit dizzy, so she hung her head down again. After a couple of minutes, she started to cry. She wanted to go home. She wanted him with her.

She settled down after a while and tried to break the chains. But they were held on so tight. She gave up after an hour of trying. The blood was all dried up now. Blood everywhere- on her ankles, on her wrists, on her clothes, on the floor.

She just waited in the dark. But what was she waiting for? Even she didn't know. She heard whispers, some loud, some quiet. Telling her she could break free, telling her she could do this. But she knew she couldn't. What kind of ninja was she? She couldn't even break free. She was weak. They all took advantage of her. Her stomach stopped bleeding, but it hurt. A lot.

Hours passed. What was going on? Was she just supposed to stay here, and die? Like this? She sighed. Even if she tried to escape, no one would hear her scream. And she didn't even know where she was, so how could she possible get out of here? She heard a scream, but it sounded far away. She looked up and tried to figure out where it was coming from. She couldn't see anything though, damn it! She struggled against the chains again, but they wouldn't bolt out. She couldn't take it.

"Damn it! You fucking bastard, let me go!" she yelled out. "Damn it…"

She heard a noise. She tried to get adjusted to the darkness surrounding her, but it was just too dark. Then, suddenly, a figure emerged from the shadows. It was that man, the one who took her here! He smiled at her, and then, looked at her in the eyes. She gasped. His face…his face! It was half skin, half all bone, veins and blood. Bugs crawled into his mouth and all over his body. He had no eyes! They looked like they were ripped out of his sockets!

She gagged and almost threw up. She couldn't bear to see his face. He floated to her side and softly stroked the side of her face. She closed her eyes and swallowed down the vomit. He chuckled lightly and spoke.

"What a pretty face…it's a shame you're gonna have to lose it soon…" He pulled out his sword from before and lightly stroked it against her neck. Then, he started to dig in deep, and cut her. Not a lot of blood, but it still hurt.

Then, he stopped what he was doing. He put the sword away and turned around abruptly. He hissed and floated away fast into the shadows. She looked up, but saw nothing. She could hear the voices again, rising and lowering. Her stomach hurt so much, she couldn't bear the pain. The chains cut deep into her skin.

What was…that….? She could feel….something soft…but rough…crawling up her legs. But she couldn't open her eyes. She felt almost numb…too tired to do anything. All she could see was darkness. She was too tired….Then, she could feel her arms being dropped to her side, her chains on her legs broke free too. She managed to open her eyes just a little bit…She could see something wounding up her body. Sand? What the…

"Let's go…" Gaara whispered softly to her.

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"Oh, I'm defiantly feeling the ramen now," 

"A-are you ok, Naruto!" asked Iruka, panicked.

The old man working at the ramen stand quickly gave Naruto some water, and after drinking some, Naruto's stomach felt a bit better. Naruto sat there, feeling bitter.

"Why didn't anyone tell me?"

Iruka looked back at the table.

"It was kept secret. The fourth Hokage was scared that the demon fox, Kyuubi, would have awakened again. He was scared the seal wasn't strong enough. And in case it did, he didn't want anymore of your family members to die, so he sent the last remaining Uzumaki girl to Sunakagure, the sand village. He had no choice; he had to separate you two. The fourth Hokage and the Kazekage at that time, made a deal that you and your sister would be kept secret, and separated, only if the Kazekage got 45 of the food we grew here. At that time, the sand village was on the edge of existence. The food had dried up and there was not a lot of water. So, the fourth Hokage made that deal, and every month, food was shipped there. But, we have just received information that the Kazekage died a long time ago, so the fifth Hokage closed the deal off. So when the deal was closed off, so was the secret.

Even if you, Naruto, have grown up with all this pain and suffering, so has your sister. We don't know what she is doing now, or if she's still alive, but we thought you should know now,"

Iruka finished telling the story and said nothing else. Darkness clouded Naruto's eyes. He got up and, without saying anything, walked silently away.

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Akiko awoke and found herself lying down in a hospital bed. She struggled to sit up, and finally almost did, but her stomach began hurting again, so she laid back down. She lifted up her shirt to look at her stomach and saw that her stomach was bandaged. Her wrists and ankles were also bandaged up. On her neck was a long, slim bandage. 

'_I can remember something…someone…_' She thought. Her head began hurting, so she stopped thinking about such difficult things.

The door to her room opened and a doctor stepped in. He was carrying a clipboard with many papers on it. He was looking over something, and he didn't notice that Akiko was awake.

Akiko had some questions, and she needed answers.

"Doctor?" she asked. The doctor jumped up a bit because he was surprised she was awake.

"Uh...y-yes?" he asked.

"Why am I here? And… did I get here?" she asked.

The doctor smiled. "You've got some amazing friends, huh?" He put the clipboard down and began thinking back.

"Well…If I can recall…you're here because you've lost quite a lot of blood, young lady. And let me remember…It was a red-headed fellow…trying to remember his name…Gary or Garth or something like that…"

'_What…it couldn't…no no no…'_

"You mean…Gaara?" she asked.

"Ah, yes! That was it! He was rather rude to one of the nurses. Anyways, that wound on your stomach was pretty bad, but it should heal up in a little while. The cuts on your wrists were quite serious, because you can die from cutting your veins, but luckily the cuts weren't that deep. The one's around your legs aren't that deep, and should heal soon. And the one on your neck was very dangerous. It seems like someone tried to slit your throat or something…" the doctor trailed off.

"What happened?" he asked.

Akiko, not wanting to recall what happened, simply replied with, "I don't know, I can't remember."

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R and R! Chapter 3, coming soon… 


	3. Chapter 3

**Aznpuffyhair**: Gaara is a mysterious…boy. He can sense many things. Or maybe not. I don't know, I'll tell you in this chapter. XD

**Sephynarutocloud**: Lol, that's what I intend on doing. And I'll try to make the chapters longer, as long as I don't get writers' block, I think I'm okay, ha ha ha.

**Ak1k0-chan**: my character's name is Akiko as well o.o; Thanks for the review XD

**Candy44**: Thanks, but what did you mean by "unlike the way you updated the last one..."

Oh, right. Ha ha ha, that was my fault; I used to be so lazy. I should probably not do that anymore. Thanks for the review!

**Agent vash**: does nice guy pose back ALRIGHT! XD

** Chapter 3: Solitude**

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Akiko lay in her bed for the rest of the day. The doctor had long gone, and she was left alone to herself to think. It was that guy again, the same guy. Why was he after her again? And Gaara…how did he know where she was? Akiko got up and walked to the bathroom; she looked at herself in the mirror and sighed. She had straight, light brown hair that reached a little below her shoulders. She had brown eyes, and she had quite a small head. She was always self-conscious of her head, but there was nothing she could really do about it. She splashed her face with water and dried it and then went back to her bed. She closed her eyes, and went back to that day…

_ It was a cold, autumn's day and she was hanging up the laundry in her back yard. She lived by herself in the sand village, and she didn't have relatives that she knew about, it became harder and harder to live. She lived next to Gaara, and every day she would talk to him and play with him. But she knew that Gaara was always getting picked on, and she always wanted to stop those other children from doing that, but she couldn't. She had no strength. She always just watched from the back, and now, she always regretted doing that. She wished she could have stopped them. Every day, she would talk to Gaara and he would tell her what those kids would say and they would both cry. She felt he was more in pain then she was. But one day, something happened. Gaara suddenly stopped talking to her and he stopped visiting her. She heard rumors about him, saying he killed everyone and that he was just some psycho person. When she saw him again, he looked completely different. She always got scared. _

_ Then, Akiko got poorer and poorer because she wasn't working because she couldn't, she was still too young. So, she decided to become a ninja, she heard that ninjas did missions and got money. And she also heard that some of the kids in her village were becoming ninjas as well. As the years went by, she grew more and more strong and got paid for all her missions. Then, one day, as she was sitting in her back yard, on the porch, late at night. She looked up at the stars and began wondering what her life would have been if she didn't become a ninja. What would she have been doing now? She heard a noise from across the street and looked at neighbor's house. The lights were on, and the window was open. She could tell that Temari was making food. The door opened and out stepped Gaara. He stopped half-way and looked at Akiko. Akiko quickly looked away. Gaara continued looking at her, and then disappeared. When Akiko finally thought he was gone, she looked up again. Gaara was sitting on his roof, looking at the moon. Akiko just stared at him with big, wide eyes. He sits on his roof? Akiko started getting this weird feeling in her, like she wanted to say something to him, but then again she didn't. So, she decided to keep quiet. After a couple of minutes, she heard a noise from the bushes nearby. She looked at the bushes strangely. _

_ "It's kind of late for a rabbit to be out this late at night…" she murmured. She shrugged that thought off and continued thinking about stuff. Then, that noise came again, only this time, it was from behind her. She turned around quickly and stared at her back yard door. It was made of glass, so she could look inside. Everything was dark, there was no light on, but she swore she left the lights on. She got up and walked to her door and slid it open. She stepped inside and closed the door. It was really dark, and she was trying to find the switch to turn the lights on. It felt so eerie in here, for some odd reason. She was walking quietly and she remained silent. _

_ "Hello?" she called out._

_ She switched the lights on, and found nothing there. But…then what turned the lights off? She heard a strange noise coming from the bathroom, like the mirror breaking, so she grabbed her kunai knives and ran to the bathroom. When she reached the bathroom, she saw some kind of creature staring at her at her with blood-shot eyes. It was a little girl, dressed in a white dress. Her arms and legs had cuts all over them and she just blankly stared at Akiko. Akiko stepped back._

_ "Wh-who are you?" she asked._

_ The girl started to cry, but instead of tears coming out, a stream of blood ran from her eyes. _

_ "What the—who the hell are you?" Akiko screamed out. The girl suddenly stopped crying and looked up at Akiko. She smiled evilly, and then started laughing. Akiko held her knives tightly in her hands, and then threw them angrily at the girl. The girl suddenly just disappeared, and the knives pinned the wall. _

_ "What the…" she muttered. Suddenly, as if nothing happened, the lights turned back on. _

_ "That was weird." She told herself. She walked into the bathroom and took out her knives from the wall. She looked at the mirror and all the shattered pieces. She sighed and began picking up the pieces. She started thinking about the girl, when suddenly her thoughts when to Gaara. He was looking at her before, but why…_

_ Wait a minute. Akiko thought back to when she was outside. Gaara wasn't looking at her, he was looking behind her._

_ 'Behind me… then he must have seen…" Akiko shoved that thought out of her head and finished picking up the pieces. _

_ That night, she couldn't sleep at all. _

Akiko opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling. Maybe…that guy that came after her yesterday… was he working with that girl? Akiko got a bit scared at that thought. The door opened and an old man and an old woman walked in. They stopped at Akiko's bed.

"Uh…hello. Can you I help you?" Akiko asked.

The man and the woman looked at each other and then pulled out a picture of a boy, about Akiko's age, with blond hair and blue eyes. He was wearing an orange jumpsuit and he had a leaf headband tied around his forehead.

"This is Uzumaki Naruto. He's your brother," said the man. Akiko stared at the man and woman like they were crazy.

"Wh-what are you saying?" she stammered.

"We believe…all the things you've seen so far…the girl and the man that was in your house the other day…You're not safe here. We've decided that it's best if you leave this village." Replied the woman.

"B-But where am I supposed to go?" asked Akiko.

"He lives in Konaha Village in the Fire Country," said the old man. He put the picture on the desk that was next to Akiko's bed. "It'll take you 3 days to get there, as soon as you're released from the hospital, you can start getting packed up."

"B…But how am I supposed to get there? I don't know where it is!" exclaimed Akiko. This was not fair.

"That's why there are such things as maps," said the woman. And then, the man and the woman bowed down to Akiko and left the room. Akiko turned sideways to look at the picture. She picked it up and then threw it on the ground.

"Hmph..." Akiko closed her eyes, and went back to sleep.

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_ "I need strength…I need power."_

Gaara closed his eyes. He remembered that night. He was cornered by some kind of monster…a man with no legs. He had a top hat on his head, and had blond hair. When he looked up at Gaara…he had no eyes. Just black liquid was flowing down from his eyes. Behind him stood a small girl in a white dress and beside her was some kind of clown, with his face painted white, and he was wearing a medieval sort of suit on him, with bells attached on it (A jester XD). Gaara didn't know why this guy was after him, he said he needed "power". What kind of power? They defeated him once…took him to some sort of cellar somewhere, and kept him locked up. They took away his sand gourd too. But he escaped easily. He thought he defeated them then…but he was wrong. They came after her…

Gaara looked up at the moon. When he went to get Akiko, when he reached there, the man was gone, but Akiko was lying on the floor, with blood coming out of her stomach. Gaara took her to the hospital, but he wasn't planning on staying. Why did she have to get involved? This wasn't her fight.

He looked across the street to Akiko's house. The house was empty, no lights were on. It was dark inside.

"Aww…You miss the poor girl, don't you?"

Gaara whirled around and saw the man with no legs floating behind him.

"What do you want?" asked Gaara. He was in no mood to fight at the moment. But if he had to…

"I'm sorry; we didn't get a chance to meet properly last time, did we? Well, my name is Hiro, at your service." He bowed.

Gaara narrowed his eyes at him.

"Why are you here?"

"Just here…to warn you…to not meddle in my plans!" Hiro yelled at him, angrily. Then he looked at Akiko's house, and smiled. "She's quite strong…has a lot of sorrow in her, she'd be great,"

Suddenly, a great wave of sand hit him in the face and he fell down. When he sat up, he saw Gaara looked down at him menacingly.

"You stay away from her,"

Hiro smiled at Gaara.

"Jealous, are we?" Hiro got up and bowed again. "Sorry for the inconvenience, I promise I won't touch your little fri—"

Another wave of sand blasted him from ahead. This time, he got thrown back far, away from the roof. He landed in a nearby tree, and looked at Gaara, mad.

Then, without saying another word, he vanished. Gaara looked back at Akiko's house, and glared down at it.

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"We just received information that she's headed this way, Hokage-sama,"

"Alright, I want you to tell Naruto to come to my office in three days,"

"Ok,"

Tsunade sighed and massaged her temples. This was hard work, being a hokage.

_ So, she's headed this way, huh? Hope she's not as a big of a brat as Naruto is._

She smiled.

Shizune suddenly opened the door, holding Tonton in her hands.

"Tsunade-sama, more paperwork!"

And then, as soon as she said that, five men came scrambling into her office and placed piles and piles of paper on her desk. Tsunade just sat there, feeling numb.

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Yes, quite a long chapter this time. Mwahahahaha, this chapter was a bit harder to write, but I got it! I picked the name "Hiro" from somone I know heh heh heh. R and R! 


	4. Chapter 4

**Sephynarutocloud**: You know what…I never actually thought about that. I'm serious. I never thought about the Akatsuki when I was writing this. You just gave me an idea o.o; Thanks for the review! XD

**Candy44**: Yeah…when I was writing this, it was long…but then…damn made it shorter. Sure, I love challenges. I think. Ha ha ha, thanks for the review! XD

**Agent Vash**: Yes, you did cry. Ha ha ha. Er…the glue? Um…that'll be in the next chapter for "Just for You: Behind the Scenes" after all the dancing and Tenten rapping XD.

**Rikki-boy**: Yes, I shall. In fact, I'm updating it right now. Actually, by the time you're reading this…it'll already be updated…thanks for the review! XD

Welcome all people, to my fourth chapter. Read and you shall...something, whatever, just read. Ha ha ha.

**Disclaimer**: I own Akiko, and all the characters that are not real in Naruto. And all the made up jutsus.

**Chapter 4- Values of feelings**

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The next couple of days were like a blur. Akiko got to go home within five days, her wound healed up. She wanted everything to go back to normal before she left, but it was hard. She couldn't forget about what the old man and woman said to her in that hospital room. She sighed. Right now, she was hanging up the laundry in her backyard. She loved sunny days like this, everything was so colorful. She heard a door open behind her. She turned to look around and saw Gaara standing there. Akiko dropped the shirt she was about to hang up and looked at Gaara straight in the eyes.

"Uh…" Akiko just stood there. She was shocked!

'_Say something! SOMETHING!'_ she yelled at herself in her head.

"Uh…hi! What brings you here?" she smiled. _'Yes! Score!'_

Gaara closed his eyes and well…just stood there.

"Uh…um…" Akiko had nothing to stay. "Can I help you with something…Gaara-kun?" she asked politely.

Suddenly, she could feel whirls of sand grasp her ankles. She looked down and saw the sand tightening around her legs. "Huh…Wha-!" Then, she looked up and saw Gaara walking toward her.

The sand stopped just below her waist. Akiko looked at Gaara and then down at the sand.

"You thought you could leave just like that?" he whispered to her. He caressed her cheek and then moved her hair back from her face.

Akiko looked up at him. She lightly blushed, she had nothing to say. _'Why is Gaara…this is scary!'_ She told herself in her head.

Suddenly, she heard a noise from behind her and snapped out of her daydreams. "Ok…That was weird. Don't think like that, Akiko!" she scolded herself. She turned around and saw Temari standing at her door, holding a basket full of clothes.

"Ah! Temari-San! Have you come to bring your clothes?" asked Akiko. She walked over to where Temari was standing. Temari handed over the basket of clothes to her and smiled.

"Well, you know the drill. Bring the clothes back by tomorrow," she said.

"Okay," replied Akiko. "Um…Temari-San?" she called. Temari turned around and looked at Akiko.

"Um…" Akiko wanted to ask Temari something about Gaara, but…"Um…never mind, ha ha ha" she said, quickly. She smiled.

"Hey, be glad you're not washing Gaara or Kankuro's clothes," said Temari. Akiko giggled.

"Well, see you tomorrow," said Temari, and she left.

"Bye!" called Akiko after her. She sighed and got started on the clothes. See, when Akiko had no money before, she offered to do people's laundry. But when she became a ninja, there was no time to wash clothes. So, she stopped doing that. But nowadays, she doesn't do that much missions, and Temari and Kankuro do, so she still offers to do Temari's clothes (even though she doesn't get any money from it.).

After an hour of putting up clothes on the clothesline, Akiko picked up the baskets and started to walk inside. But then, she turned to look at the house across from hers and saw Gaara sitting on the roof, looking at the night sky. She sighed and turned to go inside, when she stopped. She should at least say thank you to Gaara. He did take her to the hospital; otherwise, she would have died. She put down the baskets and walked a few steps towards his house. She hid her hands behind her back.

"Um…G-Gaara…Kun?" she called out. She was a bit nervous; it was a while since she spoke with him. He didn't even look at her, or say anything. He just continued looking up. "Uh…I just wanted to say…thank you…you know…for the other night," she said. He finally looked down at her and remained quiet. She smiled. "Good night!" she called out, and then went to pick up her baskets and went inside.

Gaara continued staring at her house. He saw her walking around her house, saw her cleaning the dishes, and saw her dancing. He finally saw her turn off her lights and he went back to looking up at the stars.

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"Well, that's it. I'm all done." Akiko sighed. The next day, she was leaving the sand village. She finished packing all her clothes and other items and stepped out of her house. She locked the front door and took out her map from her backpack.

"Ok. Where do I go now?" she asked herself. She turned the map in one direction, and then turned it in the other. "This…is gonna be a long trip,"

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"Where is she? Where is she?" Naruto yelled out. He was pacing back and forth in Tsunade's office three days later. He had come four hours earlier then he was supposed to, so that's why he was so impatient. Iruka came 3 hours later and tried to make Naruto calm, but so far, nothing worked. "Why is she so late?" he asked again.

"Naruto…will you be quiet!" Tsunade yelled at him, for the fifth time in a row.

"Hmph," pouted Naruto. He sat down next to Iruka and looked out the window. It was pouring rain outside, and there was hardly anybody in the streets that day. Naruto was a bit nervous, to tell you the truth. And he was scared. How would she react when she saw him? Would she hate him? Would she like him?

* * *

Three days had passed since Akiko left the sand village. And so far…the trip was…let's say…interesting. The first day, she was hit with a sand storm and had to seek shelter for most of the day.

And then, the second day came. She was resting by a brook, and she laid the map behind her, because she didn't think anything would happen to it. When she turned around, it was gone! She searched for three hours that day, looking for the map. And when she did find it, it was all ripped up and a cat was lying on top of it. It was of no use anymore, so she just left it there.

The third day was the hardest because, well, she didn't have a map, so she had to use her instincts when she was walking. When she finally reached the leaf, she wasn't allowed into the village because the village guards wouldn't let her through the gate unless she had proper ID.

Akiko couldn't believe this. So she spent most of that day bickering with the village guards. Then, she told them she wouldn't leave until they let her inside, so she sat on the ground in front of the guards for two hours until someone from Tsunade's office came and told the guards that she was supposed to be let in a long time ago, even if she didn't have proper ID.

So, the rest of that day, she walked around with the person from Tsunade's office until they actually went to Tsunade's office. At this point, Naruto was so impatient, he ready to kill anyone.

"WHERE IS SH—!" he yelled out, when Akiko opened the door. Tsunade and Iruka were hiding from Naruto until Tsunade's desk.

"Uh…I'll come back later," Akiko said. She closed the door and just looked at the people walking in the hallway. Then, she sighed, and opened the door again. This time, Naruto was sitting quietly on a chair and so was Iruka. Tsunade was sitting on a chair behind her desk and looking straight at Akiko.

"Please, take a seat,"

Akiko dropped her backpack on the ground near the door and sat down five seats away from Naruto. She looked at Naruto from the corner of her eyes, and Naruto did the same.

"Well, then, let's start, shall we? Ok, welcome to the leaf, I'm the Hokage. We've already arranged some places where you can stay, and also…well, he's right there." Tsunade said to Akiko.

'_Well, I can't be silent all the time…' _ Akiko said to herself in her head. She turned her head to Naruto and smiled. "Hi!" she said. She held out her hand for a handshake, but Naruto didn't greet her back. She stopped smiling and looked at him. She didn't know what to say, so she looked at Iruka and Tsunade. They didn't look back at her. She frowned and looked at the ground.

"Why…why did it have to be like this…?" Naruto asked, quietly. "Why did we have to be kept so far away from each other…? Why?" He asked aloud. Akiko's eyes clouded with darkness, and she kept quiet.

"I'll guess we'll never truly understand…what it means to be in real pain," said Akiko. Naruto looked up at her. She took a look at him, and slightly smiled. Naruto smiled back.

After about two hours of talking in Tsunade's office, Naruto and Akiko left her office. They stood outside in the hallway.

"So, where should we go now?" asked Akiko. Naruto stood rooted to the floor and thought.

"Hmm…I know! Let's go to my favorite place!" he said, smiling.

"Huh? Favorite place? What's that?" asked Akiko.

Naruto just grinned at her, and then led her outside.

* * *

"A ramen shop!"

"Hee hee hee," Naruto grinned. "Um…let's see…what would you like to eat?" Naruto asked Akiko as they took a seat.

"Um…Miso sounds good," replied Akiko.

"Two miso ramens please!" Naruto said.

"Coming right up," said the old man who worked at the ramen shop. As he was preparing the food, he began talking to Naruto. "And who's this young lady you brought today, Naruto?" he asked.

"This is my sister!" he exclaimed, excited.

"Wha--? They told you? So soon?" he asked, sounding shocked. He picked up two bowls from behind the counter. "Well, then welcome, what's your name?" he asked Akiko.

"Uzumaki Akiko!" yelled out Naruto. Akiko smiled and bowed politely to the old man.

* * *

'_That man…I'll kill him…I don't care what it takes…I'll kill him…'_

"Sasuke-kun!"

Uchiha Sasuke snapped out of his thoughts and turned around. He was out on a walk, and it was raining heavily, it was also very cold. He saw one of his teammates walking towards his carrying an umbrella.

"Sasuke-kun, if you don't keep warm, you're gonna catch a cold." Said Haruno Sakura. She held up her umbrella above Sasuke's head and smiled. Sasuke closed his eyes, and turned to walk away.

"Huh…? Sasuke…kun…?"

Sasuke continued walking away, until he heard Sakura say Naruto's name. He turned around and saw Naruto sitting at the ramen shop, but he wasn't alone. He was sitting with another person. A girl. Who was that? He continued staring in that direction. Then, Sakura ran up to him, and shook him. He fell out of his daze and looked at Sakura.

"Sasuke-kun! You won't believe it! Naruto has a sister!"

Sasuke just…he just stood there. He was speechless. Shocked. Surprised.

"Sasuke-kun, come and meet her!" Sakura said, she pulled his arm and led him to Naruto and Akiko.

"Sasuke-kun! Meet my sister, this is Akiko!" Naruto yelled out.

"You baka, stop spilling food everywhere," yelled Sakura.

"Sorry…" apologized Naruto. Sasuke took a seat next to Akiko, and stayed silent.

Akiko turned to look at Sasuke, and smiled.

'Hi!"

Sasuke slightly blushed and looked at Akiko.

"Hey…" he said. Naruto started talking to Akiko again, and Akiko's attention turned back to the noodles. Sasuke slightly smiled, and looked away.

* * *

"She's left the sand,"

"Do you know where she went?"

"I heard she went to Konoha village in the Fire Country,"

Darkness clouded around Hiro's eyes. "Start the preparation, we're leaving,"

"Okay!"

Hiro looked up at the dark night.

"I never wanted to go back there…"

* * *

Yes! Chapter four done, I'm so proud. I didn't want to write about Sasuke, for some odd reason, I don't know why. But the story can't be exciting without Sasuke. I don't know, ha ha ha. I hope fan fiction doesn't make the story look short, or I shall kill it. Chapter 5 coming soon…in the meanwhile…R and R! 


	5. Chapter 5

**Agent Vash- **There might be, but I can't tell you because then that would spoil everything. Yes, they do scare you. And you will get nightmares. No, just kidding. Ha ha ha XD

**Rikki-Boy- **Thanks man! XDD This chapter is for you! Thanks for the review! (Oh my God, that rhymed o.o;)

**Kagome13Chan**- Yeah, he's one of my favorite characters as well, but that day I wasn't in a big "Sasuke" mood. Ha ha ha, thanks for the review XD

**Disclaimer**: I own Akiko, and all the characters that are not real in Naruto. And all the made up jutsus.

Welcome to chapter five, sorry for the wait. Well, here it is. Enjoy!

---------------------------------------------------Chapter 5- Passive--------------------------------------------------------------------

The following days, Akiko was homesick. She lived in the sand village all her life; it was hard being in a different country, with different people. People would look at her strangely. As soon as they saw her sand headband, they'd just stare. And stare. And stare. It was very uncomfortable.

Akiko closed her eyes. She was in Naruto's apartment, in his extra bedroom. She was sitting on the bed, facing the window. She opened her eyes, and looked out. It was windy today. The leaves were blowing in every direction; Akiko couldn't really handle the cold because she grew up in a hotter climate. The door opened and Naruto stepped in.

"Akiko-imouto, I'm going training, do you want to come?" he asked. Akiko turned around and looked at him.

"Uh…sure, but what am I supposed to do?" she asked, meekly.

"Train, of course. I'm sure Kakashi-Sensei won't mind," grinned Naruto. Akiko slowly smiled.

They soon reached the number 7 training ground and waited for everyone else. Naruto sat down on the ground and Akiko sat down on a nearby rock.

"So, what are we learning today?" asked Akiko. Naruto shrugged. Akiko sighed. All this was happening fast. She never wanted to leave the Sand. So what if some crazy psycho was after her? But at least she found Naruto…she didn't want to be alone forever. They soon heard a rustling of bushes behind them. They turned around and saw Sakura emerge from the bushes. She waved and ran over.

"Hello Akiko-san," she smiled. "Are you joining us today?"

Akiko smiled. "Yep, Naruto invited me,"

Naruto grinned. Akiko, Sakura and Naruto got talking once again. Sakura kept on making fun of Naruto (a/n ha ha ha). Ten or so minutes later, Sasuke came. When he saw Akiko again, he looked down to the ground. He stood beside Sakura, and waited with the rest of them for Kakashi to come. For some odd reason, he found himself glancing at Akiko from time to time. When she laughed, when she smiled…

Suddenly, they all stopped talking and looked at Kakashi coming into view. He was walking towards them, while holding his book in one hand. He glanced up and noticed Akiko sitting there.

"Hey, sorry I'm late," he said. He put his book away.

"STOP BEING LATE!" Naruto yelled at him. Akiko stared at Naruto.

'_Okay…whoa…'_ she thought to her self. Kakashi looked at Akiko.

"Hmm…I think I know why you're here," he said, putting his hand on his chin, like he was thinking. Akiko stared at Kakashi.

"Yeah, Naruto invited me," Akiko said.

"Good, we always need more people to practice on…" Kakashi trailed off as soon as he saw Akiko's face turn white. "Right, let's get a move on. Today, we're going to learn about hiding in the shadows…"

After Kakashi was done explaining today's practice, he sat down on a rock and pulled out his book from his pocket, and began reading. Sasuke, Sakura, Akiko, and Naruto all stared at him.

"Kakashi-sensei, aren't you going to be practicing with us?" asked Sakura. Kakashi glanced up at them, and said-

"I don't need to, we have Akiko here today, and she'll help you. I know you've already done this right?" he asked Akiko. Akiko nodded slowly, staring strangely at Kakashi. "Right then, go on," he said. Naruto and the others ran off to hide somewhere.

Akiko hid somewhere with lots and lots of trees. She was pretty sure she got herself lost. She sat down behind a tree and looked around. She couldn't see anyone or sense any one coming yet. She pulled out her kunai knives and looked at them. She was so sad. She missed the Sand Village. She thought back to that night when that man came. He was so…scary…she was never this scared before. How dangerous could he be? Who was he? And the big question that was Akiko's mind all the time was- How did Gaara know when that man was coming?

_Gaara…_She could never forget him. She remembered his face; she remembered when they were kids…

Suddenly, she heard a sound behind her. She quickly did a seal and disappeared in a whirl of sand. She hid in the tree behind her, and looked out. She could see Sasuke running towards her tree. He stopped and looked around. Akiko muttered a seal under her breath, and then held her hand out towards Sasuke. Sasuke couldn't see her hand because his back was facing her. She blow sand onto the ground and waited.

Sasuke stopped and looked at the tree behind him. He couldn't see anything, but Akiko could see him. Sasuke could feel something moving beneath him, and he jumped up on the branches. Big roots dug out of the ground and raced towards him. Sasuke swung onto another branch, but more roots dug out of the ground racing towards him. Finally, the roots left. Sasuke stared at the open space in front of him.

'_What the hell was that?'_ he thought. Suddenly, he could see a web of sand shooting straight towards him. He couldn't escape anywhere, it was everywhere. The sand trapped him to the tree. He could see a shadow moving across the trees.

"Hey! Get me down!" he yelled out. He was becoming angry. Akiko emerged from the trees and looked up at him.

"Hey there. How's the view?" she asked. She smiled at him. She blew more sand towards him, and the web of sand released him. He jumped to the ground, and looked at Akiko.

"Sorry about that," said Akiko, she winked at him. She put her kunai knives away. Sasuke looked around.

"You were pretty good at that," he said. Akiko smiled.

"Yeah, I already learned about this back home," she said. Sasuke looked at her sand headband. "It was fun there, it's so different here. I guess I just miss it," she sighed.

Akiko turned to leave, when she realized that she didn't know where she was. _'Oh crap, I'm lost,'_ she thought. Yeah, this was just great.

She turned to look at Sasuke again. "Where am I supposed to go?" she asked. Sasuke smirked. "Okay then…I'll just find my own out…" trailed off Akiko. She turned to walk, when she felt Sasuke pull her back. She looked down and saw him holding her hand. "Uh…" she didn't really know what to say.

Sasuke's eyes were closed, and he wasn't smiling. "It's this way," he said. Akiko looked at him strangely. He pulled her hand and they began walking. Before long, Akiko noticed that she and Sasuke were walking side-by-side, and Sasuke was still holding her hand. They stopped to look around, and Akiko pulled her hand away. Sasuke looked her out of the corner of his eye. Akiko was staring at her hand, as if he did something wrong to it.

Sasuke smiled lightly. They began walking again. They found there way back to the ground, and saw that no one was there yet. Kakashi must have gone to look for Naruto and Sakura, because he wasn't there either. Akiko sat on the same rock Kakashi was sitting on earlier. Sasuke stood. They both remained silent, and tried hard not to glance at each other from time to time. Sasuke finally gave up, and began walking away.

"Um…hey! Wh-Where are you going?" called out Akiko from behind him. Sasuke stopped walking and turned around. He smiled at Akiko, and then began walking away again.

'_What the…That was weird,'_ thought Akiko. She looked around. It was so quiet here, so calm. She had nothing like this back home. She got up, dusted herself off and began walking around. She thought back to that day when she imagined Gaara coming into her backyard. She laughed out loud at herself. She was so funny! Like Gaara would do that…Akiko stopped laughing and sat down on the ground. She was so homesick! How would she ever survive?

* * *

It was cold today, in the Sand Village. Gaara sat on his porch and looked at the busy street in front of him. He looked across the street to Akiko's house. She was gone. Just gone. Like that.

Inside, Temari was polishing her fan, and Kankuro was fixing his bolts on his puppets. He hated it when they got loose. So much work…

"So, she's gone," sighed Temari. She stopped polishing her fan and looked out the window.

"Well, what are we going to do about it?" asked Kankuro. Temari looked down at her fan again.

"What's Gaara going to do?" she asked. Kankuro looked at her.

* * *

That night, Gaara walked into Akiko's yard, and looked through the windows. Akiko forgot to close and lock the windows, but that seemed just like her, stupid and forgetful. Gaara's sand raced out of his gourd and slipped through the window, and opened the lock from the inside (a/n, how it did this, I'm not quite sure). The door swung open and Gaara stepped inside. The inside of the house smelled nice, and every light was switched off. He walked into Akiko's room, and noticed something on her desk. He walked over to it, and it read—

"_Thanks for coming, but you're too late. She'll be in our grasp soon," _Gaara glared at the note. He turned to leave when something caught his eye. A photograph. There was a photograph on her desk, in a frame. In the photograph was Akiko smiling at the camera. That picture was taken by one of her friends from down the street before she left the sand. Gaara continued staring at the picture, before he disappeared in a whirl of sand. The picture was gone too.

* * *

That night, Akiko roamed the streets of the leaf village. She loved window shopping. She hardly ever got the chance to do it, but she still liked it. She walked past Ino's flower shop (who she met a couple of days ago), and bought a couple of flowers. She walked to the ramen stand where Naruto was sitting, and sat down beside him. She could see him talking to some other kid, he had black hair up in a ponytail, and he looked sorta sleepy.

Naruto turned and saw Akiko sitting beside him. "Hey!" he grinned. Akiko smiled. "I want you to meet my friend, this is Shikamaru!"

Akiko looked at Shikamaru and gasped.

"What?" asked Shikamaru.

"YOU ARE SO CUTE!" squealed Akiko. Shikamaru just stared at her in horror, so did Naruto. "What?" she asked, when she noticed them staring at her.

"You just called Shikamaru cute…" trailed off Naruto. Akiko shrugged and ordered more ramen. Naruto and Shikamaru stared at each other, and then went back to talking.

"Naruto…your sister is scary," he whispered. Naruto nodded.

"How could she think you're cute? I mean, look at you," said Naruto. Shikamaru stared at him.

"Thanks a lot," he replied, and then went back to eating. Naruto and Akiko left shortly after, and Akiko gave Shikamaru one last hug and then they left. Shikamaru fainted when she did that of course. Naruto asked her why she thought Shikamaru was cute.

"He looks so adorable, like a puppy," she grinned.

* * *

The next day, Akiko decided to not go training with Naruto, so Naruto left without her. Akiko woke up, and just lay in bed for most of the time. She was so exhausted for some reason. She sat up, and looked around her room. It looked so plain. She sighed and got out of bed. An hour later, she walked to her kitchen and opened the fridge.

"Geez…how does he survive with no food in this place?" Akiko asked herself. She closed the fridge door, and looked out the window. It was a rainy day today; dark clouds loomed in the distance. She heard a knock on the door, and she went to open it. But when she did, no one was there. Akiko looked out in the hallway, but no one was there. Suddenly, she felt so cold. She shivered and closed the door. She went to turn the heat up, but she found the heater broken. She stood there, confused. She felt a long, cold hand stroke her hair from behind. She turned around, and gasped. It was the same man from before! Only…he was grinning at her this time.

"Hello, we meet again," he said. Akiko moved to the side, and reached for her kunai knives.

"Get the hell away from me," she muttered. She was terrified. Why was this guy after her?

"I didn't introduce myself; I'm Hiro-" he started.

"I don't care who the hell you are, go away!" Akiko yelled at her.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, didn't anyone tell you to respect your elders?" he asked her. He moved toward her. Akiko dropped her kunai knife, he was so scary looking. "Look…" he whispered.

Akiko couldn't help it. She looked into his eyes, and was completely droned out. She couldn't tell what she was doing. What she saw…she saw Hiro talking to Gaara, she saw the little girl, the clownish jester guy. She saw Hiro sensibly killing hundreds of men at once. But he looked so different back then. He had regular eyes…he had legs. She saw him being tortured. Akiko was so scared by all this. She wanted to break away. Hiro closed his eyes, and Akiko staggered back.

"I…need help. I don't want to…to die like this," he whispered. Then, he faded away into the air. Akiko just stared, wide-eyed, at the apartment.

"Oh….my God…."

She sat down on a chair and took several deep breaths. She remembered…when she was looking at his eyes. Voices whispered to her, they were so cold. One of them kept on telling her something, like…a sacrifice or something. She didn't know, but that voice kept on telling her _"You be ready…because you can't save everyone,"_ Perhaps that man was telling her something? Akiko didn't know, and she didn't want to know. She got up, when she noticed something on the table. It was a note. It said-

"_He's coming here, this should be fun…"_

Akiko stared at the note, and then crumpled it, and threw it away. "Just my luck," she muttered.

* * *

Ok, let's explain some things here. No, there is not going to be Akiko and Shikamaru, I just thought I should add that whole "You're so cute!" thing in because he is. Shikamaru is so cute! XD or at least, I think so. Ha ha ha, but seriously, Akiko isn't going with him. She was just joking around, ha ha ha. Also, is "otouto" the Japanese word for "younger sister"? Or like, you know. Because I don't know. Ha ha ha. I've also lost my action writing thing. I think. Ha ha ha. I don't know. If you're wondering why Gaara would be in her house, I don't know either. But let's let it stay at that, I think that's for the best. Yep. R and R.

Ok, I changed "otouto" to "imouto" because man, I was so wrong. I looked at the wrong paper! . ;; I'm such an idiot. Thanks,None of your concern, for pointing out the mistake.


	6. Chapter 6

Welcome, welcome. This is chapter 6. Wow, already. Anyways, sorry for the long wait. My dad and sister got in this argument and my dad got really pissed, so he took the internet off. It was…horrible. There was nothing to do. Anyways, onto the chapter. Thanks for the reviews, guys! Keep 'em coming…In the meantime, Uzumaki Akiko is here to entertain you.

**None of your concern: ** Oh crap…you're right…oh my God…I can't believe I wrote that…I have to go edit that now…oh my God….well, thanks for telling me o.o;**  
**

**Rikki-Boy: **THANKS! well, I wrote two more chapters…so YAY! Ha ha ha

**Agent Vash: **Rawrrrrrr HA HA HA!

**Disclaimer: I own Akiko, Hiro, all of Akiko's attacks, all of Hiro's attacks, the little girl in the white dress, Ame Kishi and the jester. But feel free to imagine you're in my story. You can be the person who's in the background who's fanning over Naruto XD. **

-----------------------------------Chapter 6- Heaven and Hell---------------------------------------

The next day, Akiko woke up with a huge headache. She stared up at the ceiling and tried to remember what she did yesterday. Yesterday was like a blur. She sat up in bed and sighed. She was so groggy this morning. She got up and walked to the bathroom. She stared at herself in the mirror for 10 minutes before leaving.

She fell back onto her bed and looked up at the ceiling. What did she do yesterday? Akiko hated it when this kind of thing happened. She sat up and looked through the window. It was raining again. And it looked like there was gonna be a storm.

She suddenly felt something in her room. A kind of presence. She turned around, and saw nothing. The room turned cold.

"Who's there?" she called out. She suddenly got this weird feeling. She couldn't see straight. She couldn't concentrate…

She slowly blinked a couple of times, but she couldn't see anything. She could feel cold hands grasping her, but she couldn't do anything about it. She looked around a little, but then all she could see was black.

Akiko suddenly woke up with a start. She was all cold and clammy. She looked around her, taking in her surroundings. Her breathing was heavy, and she trembled all over.

'_Oh God…It was just a dream…'_ she told herself. She heard a small noise from across her, like a book falling. She gasped, and tried to calm herself down.

"Jeez…"

She lay back in bed, and closed her eyes. She wanted to go home so badly. She couldn't go to sleep after that, so she got up and walked out of her room. She walked past the kitchen, and onto the balcony. It was really cold this night. She shivered, and looked at all the tiny little shops and houses down below.

She could feel something whirling around her ankles. It slowly raced up her legs, and then stopped at her waist. She looked down, but there was nothing there. She turned around and saw nothing.

"Okay…" Akiko turned to look back at the trees. '_I swear if this keeps on happening, I'm gonna go crazy,'_ she thought.

After a while, she began feeling cold so she headed back inside. But before she left, she turned back to look outside. The moon was out…

Akiko looked away sadly, and then closed the door. How could she not notice all the sand laying on the floor?

* * *

The next day, I mean, the real next day, Akiko woke up late so she decided to stay home, while Naruto was out. She decided to put on regular day-to-day clothes, not the ones she wore for training. She put her brown, silky hair into a ponytail, and tied her head-band to her arm. She decided to explore Konoha today; maybe she would meet some more people.

She left the apartment, and made her way to downtown Konoha.

* * *

Naruto finished training early, so he decided to make his way to the ramen stand. He was really happy today. You know why? Because he found two coupons for ramen in his room today. He sat down on a chair and ordered his ramen. While he was waiting, he saw Hinata walking around.

"Hinata-chan!" He happily called to her. Hinata turned to look at him. When she saw him calling her over, she blushed a deep red.

She slowly made her way to Naruto and sat down beside him. She started fiddling with her fingers, like she always did.

"Hinata-chan, what's up?" Naruto grinned at her.

"N-nothing…Naruto-kun," she whispered. Naruto could barely hear her, but he made it out.

"Want some ramen? Look, I found two coupons!"

Hinata blushed some more. She smiled a little bit.

"N-n-no, that's o-ok," she said. She looked at Naruto from the corner of her eye. He was staring at her, so she quickly looked away. "U-um, so how a-are you, N-N-Naruto-kun?" she asked.

Naruto smiled. "I'm great!" he replied. Hinata smiled. They began talking, even if Hinata kept on stammering. After a while, she suddenly stopped talking.

She looked around her, afraid. But she could see no one. Naruto started looking around too, but he didn't know what Hinata was looking at.

"I-I have t-to go n-now," she whispered. She looked around again. Naruto stared at her in confusion. She quietly left, and looked back at Naruto before disappearing into the crowd.

'_Strange…'_

_

* * *

_

Akiko made her way to the top of a hill, so she could see all of Konoha. Today was a nice day; she met Lee, Tenten, Neji, and their master Gui, who was so strange. And for some odd reason, Lee and Gui had green speedos on…and bushman eyebrows, it scared her.

She also spotted Shikamaru in the crowd, so she made her way towards him. She clung onto his arm for most of the day, and made him walk around with her. When he said no, she would start to cry (pfft, yeah right), so that Shikamaru would have to walk with her. She knew it was wrong, so when she was leaving, she bought him a present. You want to know what that present was? We'll talk about that later, heh heh heh…

Anyways, she made her way towards the top of this huge hill, and stopped. She was so tired! She decided to stop here, she could see most of Konoha anyways…She sat down on a bench, and closed her eyes.

"Hey," a voice called out to her. She opened her eyes, and a looked around. She saw Sasuke standing beside her. She sat up straight and looked at him straight in the eyes.

"Hey…" she said. She loved the way he looked…his eyes…his smile…She suddenly snapped out of her thoughts and moved over. Sasuke sat down beside her. They both sat there, looking at the sun set.

"So how was your day, Sasuke-kun?" Akiko asked him. He looked at Akiko and smiled.

"It was kinda bad in the morning…but it got better when I saw you," he said. Akiko looked at him, and then looked away. She lightly blushed. "So how was your day?" Sasuke finally asked her. She looked at Sasuke, and then began explaining how her day was. They began talking about other stuff as well.

"You look so different from Naruto," Sasuke told Akiko. Akiko turned to look at him.

"Of course I do. I'm a girl. You're so funny, Sasuke-kun," Akiko said. She smiled at him.

Sasuke reached out and moved strands of hair from her face. He moved closer to Akiko. Akiko slightly backed away. Sasuke smiled. He held Akiko's hand and then went back to looking at the sunset. Akiko looked at her hand, and then at Sasuke. She blushed. Sasuke turned to look at her, and they both couldn't keep their eyes off each other. Sasuke moved closer…and closer…

"Sasuke….kun?"

Sasuke and Akiko broke the gaze and stared at Sakura.

"What…How…?" Sakura started. She couldn't even finish her sentence. She turned away and started to walk.

Akiko felt so guilty. Why was she doing this? She did such a horrible thing. Sasuke got up and said

"Sorry. I have to go now," And he left. Akiko just stared at him.

She sighed. How could she do such a horrible thing? She felt so guilty…

"No, no. I don't want this…" Night had set in, and once again, the moon was out.

'_What do you want then?' _ It seemed like the moon was asking her.

"I want to go home," she said. She started to cry. She looked at all the tears falling down.

"Stop that,"

Akiko stopped. She recognized that voice…She looked out from the corner of her eye, and stopped.

Right there, sitting beside her…was Gaara. His eyes were closed, and his gourd was lying on the ground, near the bench. His arms were crossed. Akiko turned to look at him.

"Oh…no…"

* * *

Sakura felt so lonely. Why would Sasuke do that? She felt like she was such a loser. No wonder Sasuke never liked her…he probably liked girls who were strong, unlike Sakura. Sakura felt so small at times, like she couldn't do anything. She felt that someone always had to look out for her.

Right now she was sitting on the forest floor, near a tree. For the past 10 minutes, she was just sitting there, and thinking about how much of a loser she was. She felt so down…She just kept on picking at the little flowers that grew on the forest floor. She ran out of tears as soon as she sat down.

She felt so sick…she didn't think she could go to practice tomorrow…

Suddenly, she could feel someone's arms wrap around her stomach from behind. She gasped. Sasuke whispered words into her ear, and pulled her closer to him. Sakura blushed furiously. She sighed happily…

And then was brought back to reality when she realized something was scratching at her ankles.

"Huh?" She turned and looked at the most cutest kitten sitting there, scratching at her ankles. It looked so cold…She picked it up and held it close.

Silently, he kneeled down beside her. He saw her smiling at the kitten, and he saw her crying. He smiled and shook his head.

"You're hopeless…you know that?"

Sakura turned to the side and looked at Sasuke. Sasuke was smiling at her. Sakura looked away. Sasuke sat down beside her. The kitten wriggled out of Sakura's hands and ran towards Sasuke. It playfully jumped at his knees, and then fell asleep in front of him.

"Sorry..." Sasuke said to Sakura. Sakura looked at the ground. Should she accept his apology?

"No...n-no…Sasuke…kun…How can you just say it like that?" She shook her head as freshly fallen tears fell from her eyes. Sasuke stared at her and then looked back down at the ground.

"Why…didn't you just say no the first time? You knew I liked you…" she continued. She stood up.

"You could have told me…." She started. Sasuke looked up at her, but then she looked away. "You could have told me you loved Uzumaki Akiko," she whispered. She started to walk away, but then stopped. She turned and said,

"Be careful with that cat,"

And then she left Sasuke in the darkness of the night.

* * *

Shikamaru opened the front door of his house and entered. It was so late at night, and he was so tired. In his hand, he was holding Akiko's present. He didn't have a chance to open it yet though. He made his way to his room and switched on the light. He tossed the present onto his bed as he sat down. For most of the day, he had to walk around with Akiko. It was so troublesome. He remembered her telling him that she loved window shopping even if she didn't get a lot of chances to do it.

He yawned and stretched. He looked at the present that Akiko had given him. He took it out of the bag, and stared at it. It was wrapped up. He lazily opened the wrapping paper, and then just stared at it.

"What the hell!"

Inside, was volume 1 of Icha Icha Paradise. He just stared at it in horror. He quickly flipped through the book, thinking this was just some weird kind of joke. When he flipped to the middle of the book, a picture fell out. He picked up the picture and looked at it. It was a picture of Akiko at her house in the sand village. He turned the picture to the back, and read what it said-

"_The book is for men's romantic fantasies! You know what I mean…Best Friends Forever! Ok, now you give me a picture of you!"_

_-Akiko_

Shikamaru just dropped everything.

What…the…hell..?

He looked at the fallen bag, and picked it up. There was still something in there. He reached in and pulled it out. It was…a Shikamaru plushie!

"Huh?" Shikamaru said. He looked on the tag, and it said-

"_I made one for everyone! This one's yours "_

Shikamaru weirdly stared at the plushie. Then, he heard a knock on his door. He quickly stuffed the plushie, and the bag, and the magazine under his bed. But it was too late.

His mother entered the room and was about to nag at him about being late, until she saw the magazine in his hands.

"Shikamaru! What is that!" she yelled at him. Shikamaru dropped everything he was holding and quickly backed away from his mother.

"It's not what you think!" he yelled. His mother picked up the magazine, and then fainted.

'_I'm in trouble…'_ Shikamaru sighed unhappily.

* * *

Naruto paced back and forth in his living room. Where was she? He was waiting for 3 hours so far. Akiko hadn't come home yet. He sighed. He hated worrying…and waiting. He walked into Akiko's room and looked around. Everything was organized, nothing on the ground.

He walked over to her dresser and looked at all the photos she had on her desk. There was one she had with her and two other girls. Naruto could see some writing in the corner of picture. It said "Graduation Day" on it. He put that down, and picked up another one. This one…this one…had Akiko and…Gaara in it. Only they looked younger. Maybe, 6 or 7. Naruto dropped the picture. Akiko knew Gaara? That same Gaara that tried to kill Lee?

Naruto walked away from the dresser and looked around for more stuff. He found a letter on her bed that was addressed to her. It was already opened, so Naruto took it out. It was from a person named "Ame Kishi". Must have been one of Akiko's friends from the sand. It read—

"_Hey Aki-chan! I can't believe you're gone…we all miss you here. Guess what? Aiko passed her finals! She started crying so much after. I wish you were here. I heard you had to leave because some weirdo guy was after you. Is that true? We're all worried over here, stop making us worry! So how is life so far? We're all fine over here…I also heard that Gaara kid, the one who you kept on talking too (and I have no clue how you were able to do that), is coming to the leaf. We don't know why, but people are saying he likes you. But we don't believe that. Maybe he's just coming for some other reason. He's so scary! Um…sorry. Anyways, you ABSOLUTLY have to visit us. It's so lonely over here without you! And bring your brother too! What's his name again? Narrey? Nuto? Oh well, I'll figure it out some time. Ha ha ha. Anyways, write back as soon as possible!_

_-Ame _

Naruto stared at the letter. How could this girl think his name is Narrey? It's Naruto! Anyways, he re-read the letter again. Which weirdo guy? What was she talking about? Come to think about it…no one really told him why she was coming. Other then "We think it's time you should know," No, there has to be another reason. And another thing, what was this whole Gaara Akiko thing? Naruto put the letter back into its envelope and put it back on her bed.

He sat there thinking about many more things. Finally, he got up and went to the kitchen to wait some more.

* * *

Akiko and Gaara sat silently on the bench. They both were gazing at the moon in front of them.

Finally, Akiko broke the silence.

"How did you know I was here?" Gaara didn't say anything. Akiko looked at the ground. "You never talk to me anymore. You know I don't like that," Gaara still remained silent. What was going on in his head? Akiko sighed. "I guess you must have seen me and Sasuke, right?" She looked at Gaara, but he kept on looking at the night sky. She looked away. "I don't know what was wrong with me…I'm so—"

"Don't,"

Akiko looked at Gaara. He was looking at the ground now. He closed his eyes.

"Then…please don't…be mad at me," Akiko whispered. She laid her head on his shoulder, and fell asleep. Gaara looked at her from the corner of his eye, and then went back to watching the night. Sand flowed out of his gourd and loosely wrapped itself around Akiko, pulling her closer to him.

* * *

I think someone got seriously burned in this chapter. I get so squealish on parts like these. And I'm the one who wrote them -.- Yes, I'm weird. That's why my stories are so twisted. Or…story. Or is it stories? O.o; I just have this thing for writing imaginations, and then making the person "snap back into reality". It's so funny. Anyways, I got the idea for the Icha Icha Paradise thing from my head. It's so funny! Man, Shikamaru's in deep trouble now. I also don't know what a kitten would be doing roaming the forest at night time. Maybe it was out partying, and then got drunk. Ha ha ha, just kidding. "Be careful with that cat," Ha ha ha, I got that line from Constantine, ha ha ha. Anyways, R and R! Chapter 7 coming soon… 


	7. Chapter 7

Hello, hello. Welcome to chapter 7 of my story.Ok, from now on, at the end of every chapter, I will ask a question, and I want everyone's thoughts on it, because I don't know the answers to these questions. Sometimes, the questions will be weird and stupid. Ok, so yeah. Oh, and sorry for not uploading these chapetrs earlier...my dad took away our internet because he got really mad at my sister and my cousin and they got in this fight...anyways, I'm only going to have internet for this week, because then my cousins are coming back and my dad's going to take it away again...and we're gonna get it back when school starts. So, yeah. Sorry guys. DX But I present you with chapters 6 and 7! And when school starts, I'll probably have 8 up. Maybe 9...Anyways, ENJOY!

**Disclaimer: I own Akiko, Hiro, all of Akiko's attacks, all of Hiro's attacks, the little girl in the white dress, Ame Kishi and the jester. But feel free to imagine you're in my story. You can be the person who's in the background who's fanning over Naruto XD. **

-----------------------------------Chapter 7- Oracle--------------------------------------------------

Sasuke left a few minutes later, after Sakura. He left the kitten on somebody's porch and then made his way home. He had a lot of thinking to do. He never felt this way about someone. He was starting to like Sakura…but even he's not sure about that. And what about Akiko? He just met her…he shouldn't have been doing this. He had other important things to be thinking about.

* * *

Gaara opened the door to Naruto's apartment from the balcony and stepped in. The lights were off and everything was quiet. He laid Akiko on the couch and watched her sleep for a couple of minutes before leaving. He closed the door behind him, and disappeared into the night.

* * *

The next morning, Akiko woke up when the sun was still rising. She looked around and found herself on the couch.

_'What the…How did I get here?' _ She asked herself. She got up and stretched.

* * *

Sakura could hardly sleep that night. She never felt like this before. She couldn't even find strength in herself anymore. She walked around in her room for hours, trying to fall asleep, but she couldn't. She was awake until 5 in the morning.

* * *

Akiko sat down and started eating breakfast. She felt so tired and cold. What the hell was she doing the night before? She couldn't even remember. She walked to Naruto's room and peeked in. It was so messy in here. Scrolls and clothes lay everywhere. Akiko just left the room immediately. She was walking in the hallway, back to the kitchen before she heard a noise in the kitchen. It sounded like a bunch of plates falling on the ground and breaking. She ran to the edge of the wall, and looked out from the corner. She didn't see anything. She looked at the open cabinet and saw more plates falling on the ground and breaking. But she remembered, she didn't leave the cabinet open. She slowly walked to the cabinet and looked inside. There was a note inside.

_"Long time, no see,"_

Akiko dropped the note. She stepped back.

"Ow!" she yelled. She looked down and saw that she stepped on a broken piece of plate. It started bleeding a lot. She heard another noise from behind her, and she turned around. No one was there. She started feeling all weird again, like before. She could hardly see anything…Everything was going black. She slowly blinked and looked around.

Suddenly, a shadow loomed in front of her.

She looked up and saw a man dressed up…as one of those medieval clown people. He had white paint on his face, and he was wearing a hat with bells. His hands were bloody with cuts and he was wearing weird shoes. Akiko stepped back.

"Leave me alone," she said. She knew this guy was with Hiro. The man chuckled. Suddenly, he took out this sword and swung it at Akiko. Akiko ducked just in time. She fell on the broken pieces of glass and her arms started bleeding. She looked up at the man and he was staring at her, showing his sharp, bloody teeth. He smiled. She tried to crawl away, but he stepped in front of her.

She started crying, but she knew that wouldn't help. The man pulled her up from her hair. She closed her eyes, and bit her lip. He touched her cheek with his long, bony finger. He dropped her on the floor again, and she got more cuts on her.

She saw a pool of blood forming next to her. She quickly wrote something in it, and she was hoping the man wouldn't see her. Suddenly, she could feel someone's arms seizing her up. She could see the jester man standing behind her, holding her. She saw the little girl there. She smiled at Akiko, and then began laughing.

Why wasn't she fighting back?

'_Hurry…Hurry up…Naruto…'_ She thought.

The next thing Akiko saw was just black. Black all around her. The little girl and the man were fading.

* * *

Naruto woke up and stretched. He sat up, tired in his bed, and yawned.

He got up and went into Akiko's room. Her bed was made…that means she wasn't home, she never made her bed.

He walked into the kitchen and stopped.

"What…what happened here!" He saw broken plates on the ground, he saw blood splattered everywhere. He walked around the mess, trying to figure out what happened. He looked down at the floor. Right there, written in blood, it said…

Help   
Please

Naruto looked around. Wait…could it be possible that Akiko wrote this? He ran to his room to get ready.

Ten minutes later, Naruto left his apartment and ran outside. He saw Sasuke training outside. He ran to the training grounds and stopped Sasuke from kicking the tree.

"Naruto! What the hell!" Sasuke yelled at him.

Naruto was breathing hard.

"Akiko's been kidnapped!" he yelled.

"What?" Sasuke asked.

"We have to go find her!"

Naruto then explained everything he saw in his kitchen that morning.

"We have to tell Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto exclaimed.

The two of them left the training grounds to find Kakashi's house. Finally, after asking many people, they found Kakashi's house.

Naruto knocked loudly on Kakashi's door. Kakashi opened his door and then shouted at the top of his lungs.

"AKIKO'S BEEN KIDNAPPED!"

Kakashi looked at Naruto strangely.

"How did you find my house?"

Naruto stared at him like he was insane, and then he pushed Kakashi and yelled at him some more.

"WHAT THE HELL!"

And then Sasuke and Naruto explained to Kakashi what happened. Within 15 minutes, the three of them were in Tsunade's office, explaining what happened (Well, actually most of the talking came from Naruto). Tsunade contacted the other jounins and they all met up in Naruto's apartment, looking at the mess.

Tsunade sighed. This was serious.

"So it's true. What they told me…"

Naruto looked at her. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"A long time ago…there was a man, who was studying to be a medical ninja. His name was Hiro Mutou. He was trying to make a new kind of medicine that would help people from dying. Sort of…a life saving medicine. The Third, who was the hokage at that time, told him not to make it because people needed to die, it was a natural part of life. He turned against every one.

The reason he was making this…was because he was dying. He had some sort of virus in him that was incurable. In the end, he killed his only daughter because of madness. His wife was long dead because she died of sickness when the girl was only four years old. He continued trying to make this, it took a long time. One mistake could ruin it. He was obsessed, and he knew he had limited time left. One day, he mixed two wrong chemicals by mistake, and it all blew up.

His face melted away, and his eye balls melted away. He was blind. He didn't want to give up though. Everyone tried to stop him, but he wouldn't listen. One night, he was about to take a rest, when some one appeared in his house. He didn't know who it was, but he tried desperately to run away. He didn't make it. The man hacked off Hiro's legs and said he didn't need them, and Hiro was stabbed to death in the back. People say his ghost still roams the world, but no one believed that.

The only way he could come back to life was getting a hold of a very powerful and strong soul. First he sought out Sabaku no Gaara…because of the demon he possessed. It was too hard, so they said he gave up. After that, he…must have gone after Akiko. We don't know why…" Tsunade stopped talking.

Naruto stared wide-eyed at the blood. "How…how was that possible?" he asked.

Kurenai stepped up and continued.

"Well, first he would need to suck the soul out, trap it somewhere, and then take his place in the persons' body. That way, when he's in the body, the soul can't go back in, and the body is his. They say he wants to come back to life and finish his work…But the body would be possessed by an evil spirit the whole time…"

Tsunade sighed.

"I didn't actually believe it when the people from the sand village told me 'an evil spirit' was after her…"

Naruto stood up. "Well, we have to go find her, or it'll be too late!"

All the jounins looked at him.

* * *

Gaara felt some weird kind of feeling coming over him…He left his hotel room immediately. Temari just stared at him as he left.

He walked outside and stepped into the sunlight. He could sense something was wrong.

* * *

Akiko woke up in some kind of cave or something. It was freezing cold here. She sat up and shivered. She was on some kind of weird table or something. She didn't like this at all…

She got off the table and walked around. There seemed to be no passage ways out of here. It was just all dark and cold. She continued walking, and stepped in water or something.

"What the…?" Akiko looked down. She could see that there was a pool of water or something down here. She looked up at the ceiling of this cave and wondered how water could have come here. She stepped back. She looked at her arms, but could hardly make anything out. She felt her arms and twitched. The pain was there alright…that meant this wasn't a dream.

* * *

Neji sighed. He was so bored. Gai didn't turn up for practice today. Lee was really upset; he thought something bad might have happened to Gai sensei so he started crying. Tenten tried hard to get Lee to calm down, but she couldn't so she gave up.

She hid behind a tree as she watched Neji sitting on a log, looking up at the sky.

_'Should I go talk to him?' _she asked herself. She looked back at the blubbering Lee, and then immediately looked away. _'Maybe I should,'_

She drew in a deep breath and then walked towards Neji. Neji could sense someone coming near him, so he turned around.

'_Crap…forgot about that,'_

"What?" Neji rudely asked. Tenten looked at him as if she wanted to slap him.

"You know, you could have helped in with making Lee stop crying," Tenten said. She put her hands on her hips. Neji looked away. Tenten sighed. She messed up again. I think.

Anyways, within ten minutes, Gai walked to his training area and stopped. He saw Neji sitting on a log looking bored as hell; Tenten was sitting on the grass pulling out weeds and Lee…Oh my God! Lee was crying!

"Lee!" Gai yelled out. Lee turned his head.

"Gai-Sensei! Where were you!" He yelled.

Gai ran over to him. "If you cry, I cry!" he exclaimed. They hugged each other and began crying. Tenten and Neji just weirdly stared at them. After twenty minutes of crying, they calmed down.

"Ok, let's explain today's mission!"

* * *

Hinata was walking in the streets of Konoha. She didn't have practice today because Kurenai-sensei was busy with something. She could sense someone running towards her, and she turned around. She found Naruto breathing heavily.

"N-Naruto…kun?" she asked. Naruto looked up at her.

"Have you seen Akiko?" he asked. Hinata shook her head.

"Shit!" Naruto whispered. He closed his eyes angrily, and tried to think. Hinata just stared at him.

"Um…why Na-Naruto-kun?" she asked. Naruto shook his head. Hinata looked down at the ground. Naruto looked up at her face and saw that she was sad about something. Maybe something happened between her and Neji? Maybe they got in a fight?

"Hinata…chan? Are you okay?" Naruto asked. Hinata immediately looked up at him, and nervously smiled.

"Y-yes…" she said. She went back to looking at stuff through the store windows. Naruto was worried about her. He didn't know why though. He never felt like this before. He grabbed a hold of Hinata's hand. Hinata turned around and looked at him.

"Na-Naruto-kun…?"

"You have to help me…Will you help me?" Naruto asked. Hinata blushed a deep red.

"Y-yes…" she said. Naruto smiled at her. He led her to the forests.

* * *

Sakura dragged herself out of bed and walked to the kitchen downstairs. She felt so down ever since yesterday. Actually, she didn't feel like eating anything, so she made her way back upstairs to her room. She just found out that she had no practice today, so she decided to stay in her house.

She was looking out her window for most of the time. She didn't even know why she got dressed today, it's not she was going anywhere.

"Sakura! Someone's here to see you!" Her mother called from downstairs.

"Hm? Someone's here? To see me?" she asked herself. She ran down the stairs and then stopped.

Sasuke was waiting outside her door. He saw her and looked at her. She looked at him up and down and realized it was the same Sasuke she saw every day.

"I'm going back to bed…" she muttered. She could feel someone wrapping there arms around her waist.

"We have to look for Akiko…she's gone," Sasuke whispered to her. Sakura looked at the ground and then closed her eyes.

"I…I…" She didn't know what to say. Sasuke let go of her, and she turned to look at him.

"I…don't…want to," she finally said. Sasuke looked at her strangely. Sakura wasn't acting like herself. She turned to leave. She began walking up the stairs, and then finally, she walked into her room and closed the door.

Sasuke sighed. He could feel a presence near him and turned around. He saw Sakura's mother behind him, looking up the steps.

"She left, didn't she?" She sighed. "She's so stubborn,"

Sasuke just stared at her. Sakura's mother smiled at him.

"Want me to get her out of bed for you? She's been acting down ever since yesterday, she won't even talk about her problems," She continued. Sasuke looked back up the stairs. He shook his head.

"Let me try,"

Sakura sat on the floor next to her bed, thinking. She so didn't want to see Sasuke today. She totally humiliated herself the other day. She sighed. She got up and laid down on her bed, and closed her eyes. She heard a knock on her door. She thought it was her mother again.

"Leave me alone…" she said. She sighed. The door opened. She got angry again. This time she sat up and turned to look at the person who came in.

"Sasuke…kun?"

Sasuke knelt down beside her and looked at her.

"What's your problem?" He asked her.

"I…what…" Sakura looked away. Sasuke smiled. Sakura laid back down on the bed and turned away. "I don't want to talk today, Sasuke-kun, I'm sure you have more important things to do…"

When Sakura said this, he could hear sadness in her voice.

"You…really are annoying," he whispered in her ear. Sakura didn't face him, but tears did form in her eyes. "But…That's what I love about you," he whispered again.

Sakura turned around to look at him. He hugged her tightly, like he never wanted to let go of her. Sakura felt confused…but she forgave him anyways…and hugged him back.

* * *

Gaara hid behind a tree and listened to the voices. He had been walking around for many hours; he just knew something was wrong. He found traces of blood along the trees and figured out it was Akiko's. He was deep inside a forest, it was really dark here. No sunlight was let through here, and this place seemed to be very far from Konoha. He reached a deep, long, dark cave and stopped.

He didn't like this place. Made him feel uncomfortable, but then again, Konoha made him uncomfortable as well because he wasn't used to the climate. Anyways, he stopped in front of the cave and looked in. He suddenly started feeling cold. What was going on?

Something was telling him not to go inside.

* * *

"Son, we need to talk,"

Shikamaru had the day off today, because Asuma was busy with something. But he had nothing to do so he stayed home. This was a bad idea. His mother had been nagging him for so long about the magazine.

"There comes a time in every young mans' life where he begins to experience changes- both physically and mentally—"

Shikamaru stared at his dad in sheer horror.

"No! NO!" he yelled. He suddenly did Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and a clone of him appeared in front of him. The clone looked at Shikamaru's dad and then jumped out the window.

"Do you want that to happen to me!" Shikamaru yelled. "A girl gave me that magazine! She's insane!" Shikamaru explained. Shikamaru's dad took the magazine and then read the note that Akiko wrote.

"Yes…well…I'm just gonna…have to…keep this book with me…for a while…" he exclaimed. He slowly put the book in his pocket and then looked around, making sure no one saw. "Don't tell your mother," he said. And then he left. Shikamaru just looked at him like he was insane.

Shikamaru's mom entered his room.

"Shikamaru, someone's here for you," she said.

"What! She's been kidnapped!" Shikamaru said. Naruto was at Shikamaru's door with Hinata and he just explained to Shikamaru what happened.

"Yeah, I've been looking for a while, I can't find her anywhere," he said. Shikamaru thought about this.

"Did you try the forests?" he asked. Naruto nodded. "Well, let's see. These people obviously wanted to hide Akiko somewhere…so where would you hide someone…?"

Naruto gasped.

* * *

Ok, did you like that? Please, tell me! Yeah...I couldn't think of anything else to write about Hiro...so yeah...please...don't ask...Here's my question!

Do you ever think Gaara has perverted thoughts? Geez...he's so mysterious...

And by the way...IF YOU THINK THE STORY IS ENDING NOW, YOU ARE WRONG! I just...yeah...wanted to...yeah..>.>

Yep, that's it. Ok, send in your answers, I wanna know. R and R!


	8. Chapter 8

**Rikki-Boy-** Of course you're not an idiot, you give me great reviews! Yeah…but you don't think about things like that, it's pretty interesting, and he's such a mysterious person! Thanks for your answer, and the reviews!

**Aznpuffyhair-** Yes…perhaps I did…but…er…she's a clinger! Iono…ha ha ha well, he must know it, but maybe he doesn't use it in real life, so I just thought it would be funny to add it in here, and it's sorta like saying "I would kill myself before reading that PIECE OF CRAP!" Ha ha ha

**Agent Vash- **HAHAHAHAHA, she was all like "What the FUCK is going on here!" Shikato? Hmmm? Who? Ha ha ha

**Kagome13Chan- **Yeah! More Gaara X Akiko! I totally agree with you. I love Gaara . Thanks for the review!

I love Bonnie Pink's "5 more minutes," "I wish you had stayed here for 5 more minutes

I was about to say "I forgive you"". In the meantime, here's chapter 8 of Uzumaki Akiko: A remake! Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: I own Akiko, Hiro, Ame, and all the made up jutsues and characters in this story. **

--------------------------------------Chapter 8- Everything about You-----------------------------

Akiko looked around her. It was a dark, cold place. She shivered, and then sat down on the ground. How could she be so stupid as to land herself in a place like this? Why couldn't she just fight that scary looking guy and then just book it out of there? She sighed. She was pathetic. She shouldn't have listened to that old man and woman. How could they just tell her to leave like that anyways?

'_Oh well'_ she thought. _'Nothing I can do about that now…'_ She suddenly heard a giggling sound from behind her, and she got up and turned around.

The little girl was staring at her with big, round eyes. She was smiling. And this time…she had no cuts on her either.

"You're funny," she said. Akiko just stared at her. The little girl shifted uneasily where she was sitting. "You know…You shouldn't worry about silly things like that. It's not worth it," she began playing with the dirt on the ground, making gruesome pictures in the floor.

"How…how do you know what I'm thinking?" Akiko asked. The little girl looked up at her and smiled.

"I know a lot of things." She said. She stood up and dusted herself off. "My name is Masumi Mutou,"

Akiko took a step back. This was strange…

"What's your name?" asked Masumi. Akiko hesitated a bit. Should she tell her her name? Then again…what's wrong with just telling someone your name?

"Uzumaki Akiko,"

Masumi smiled. "Uzumaki, huh? You must be that other guy's sister then…" Masumi sat down on a rock and continued to smile and stare at Akiko. "Sit down,"

Akiko sat down on the ground. What the hell was going on?

"I think you've met my dad already…he's the…the one with no legs," stated Masumi. Akiko gasped.

'_Her dad!'_

Masumi happily smiled. "Yep, it's true. I know it sounds a bit weird…but it is true,"

"So…um…your dad…what does he want with me?" asked Akiko. Maybe if she got on Masumi's good side, then maybe she could get out of this place.

"It sounds really silly, and I've told him many times to just forget it, but he doesn't listen to me…he wants to come back to life…so he can complete his work," said Masumi. Akiko looked at the ground. What work?

"Some things are just not meant to be said to people," said Masumi. Akiko looked up at her, Masumi was smiling. "I know what you're trying to do…it won't work,"

Akiko sighed. Well, it was worth a try…

"Who's that boy, by the way?" asked Masumi. Her smile was gone and she looked confused.

"Boy? What boy?" asked Akiko.

"The one with red hair. He's wearing this huge gourd thing…I think he's pretty cute," at this, Masumi smiled. "He's not your boy friend is he?" she asked.

But Akiko didn't even listen to what Masumi said at the end.

'_Gaara…is…here? He's here…?'_ Akiko thought. She thought she was about to cry. Suddenly, a pack of dirt slammed into her face. She was on the floor of the cave, coughing out dirt. She looked up at Masumi and saw Masumi looking very angry.

"I thought I asked you something!" yelled Masumi. Akiko coughed some more.

"Wh…what?" asked Akiko.

"Well, you better listen this time! I was asking you if that boy was your boy friend!" said Masumi. Her anger was receding. Akiko sat up and dusted herself up. She glared at Masumi.

"No…he's not," she said. She saw Masumi gloating happily.

"Good, you probably don't deserve him anyways…" trailed off Masumi. "Anyways, it's a good thing Papa and Hisaki don't know he's there…"

"So…what is he doing there anyways?" Akiko asked. She wanted to know why Gaara always seemed to show up whenever Akiko was in trouble.

Masumi faced Akiko, a look of jealously was on her face. "Nothing, he's just standing there, I bet he's deciding whether he should come rescue you or not,"

Akiko threw Masumi a dirty look, and then turned around. Was anybody else with Gaara? No…probably not…

* * *

Shikamaru and Naruto continued to search for Akiko. They met up with Neji and Tenten and they saw Sasuke and Sakura. They all explained what they were doing.

It turned out that Neji and Tenten were on a mission, they were searching for Akiko as well. They spilt with Lee and Gai and went a different way. Sasuke and Sakura went looking for Akiko as well, but they couldn't find her.

Naruto sighed. Hinata was chatting with Sakura; they were trying to think of places where Akiko could have been. Hinata managed to stay with Naruto the whole time, she didn't even seem tired.

Tenten went over to Sakura and started talking to them as well. Naruto looked around the street. People were already starting to walk around, as if nothing was happening. Naruto looked at the ground.

He felt someone tapping him lightly on the shoulder, and he turned around. Hinata was looking at the ground; a light blush crept up to her face.

"U-um…N-N-Naruto-kun…w-we think that maybe he could…t-try the forests one more time…be-because Shi-Shikamaru-kun thinks that we might h-have missed some..thing..."

Naruto turned around to look at Shikamaru. He was explaining something to Sasuke and Neji. Naruto looked back at Hinata and nodded.

"Thanks," he said. Hinata walked back over to Sakura and Tenten.

Shikamaru walked back to Naruto.

"Ok, I've got it like this. Neji and Tenten will look around their training ground, I'll look around mine, Hinata'll stay with you, and Sasuke and Sakura claim they've already looked in your training ground, so they're coming with you,"

Naruto nodded. Shikamaru really thought this out…

"Alright, let's head out!" Shikamaru called to the others. Everyone nodded, and then were disappeared in a flash. The only ones who were left behind now were Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto and Hinata.

"Well…let's go!" Naruto yelled. A few seconds later, they were gone as well.

* * *

Gaara stared into the cave. It was a cold day, the air was restless. Leaves rustled in the wind.

Suddenly, he heard a noise behind. He slowly turned around. No one was there…yet.

* * *

Naruto, Hinata, Sakura and Sasuke searched most of the forests in Konoha so far. They were all very tired, and needed a rest, but Naruto said that they needed to keep on looking. The jounins and some chunins were looking on the outside of Konoha right now.

At this moment, the four were running through the trees in a forest, and by the looks of it, they didn't seem to be near Konoha anymore.

Suddenly, Naruto, who was in front of all of them, stopped.

"Naruto, what is it?" asked Sasuke, he was completely out of breath. Naruto didn't face any of them. He was looking at something on the ground…someone…

"Naruto! What's wrong?" asked Sakura. Suddenly, Naruto leapt off the branch, and landed swiftly on the ground.

"Where's Akiko? Where did you take her?" Naruto asked, darkly.

Sakura, Sasuke and Hinata couldn't see who Naruto was talking to, nor did they hear anyone else say anything. Whoever Naruto was speaking to wasn't saying anything.

"So you think it's funny to just stand there, when you know something is going on?" Naruto asked again.

"Naruto! What's going on? We're coming down there!" Sakura yelled out. Sakura, Sasuke and Hinata jumped off the branches they were on and landed on the ground behind Naruto.

In front of them, they could see who Naruto was talking to. Gaara was standing in front of Naruto, smiling.

"Bringing your friends to help you out?" asked Gaara. Naruto narrowed his eyes.

"I know about you and Akiko. I found her letter…What are you doing to my sister!" yelled Naruto.

Gaara chuckled lightly. Naruto ran forward towards Gaara, with his fist outstretched.

"Naruto! NO!" Sasuke yelled out. Before Naruto could hit Gaara, a wave of sand engulfed him and threw him aside. He hit a tree hard and fell on the ground. He glared up at Gaara.

"Naruto…don't waste time on this guy! Akiko could be anywhere, and who knows what's happening to her! We can't afford to fall apart," stated Sakura. Hinata was already kneeling by Naruto, looking slightly worried.

* * *

Akiko was sitting on the hard, cold stone floor all by herself. Masumi already left a while ago. From time to time, Akiko could hear voices whispering to her. She couldn't make out what they were saying, and she thought she was going crazy. She paced the cave back and forth, pressing her ear to the walls, listening to all the voices calling out to her.

She must have lots of blood so far from all the cuts she had on her arms and legs because she was feeling slightly dizzy. Just as she thought she was about to pass out, she could see some light reflecting off the floor a little bit ahead of her. She slowly blinked and tried to think clearly. Surely she would have seen it before; she must have walked around the cave hundreds of times. She slowly got up and walked towards the light. She looked up at the ceiling and saw a little gap through the roof of the cave. Sunlight was streaming through the hole. Akiko just stared up at the hole. How could she be so STUPID that she didn't even see that!

Akiko looked around at her surroundings. There was no way to get up there, no holes in the wall which she could climb up. She bit her lip and thought. She couldn't do any jutsus because she didn't have any chakra. For some reason, ever since she got here, she couldn't bring up any chakra at all, like it was sucked out or something.

Akiko tried to summon up chakra, but she couldn't. She could feel a sharp pain build up in her chest. She gasped and clutched her chest.

"What the…why can't I…?"

* * *

"You know where she is…right? You know where they've taken her; I bet you're in all this!" Naruto yelled out. Gaara just stared at Naruto. They were wasting his time…Akiko could be dead by now…

"Look Naruto, He might not know where Akiko is," Sakura said. Naruto narrowed his eyes angrily at Gaara. He knew.

"Fine, but we're coming back here; I don't care what you say!" Naruto yelled. Sakura nodded. Then, the four of them disappeared into the air.

* * *

Akiko fall down hard on the stone floor. She had been trying to climb up out of the cave, but it was hard. She must have fallen down at least a hundred times that day, and she was starting to get blisters on her feet.

"This sucks," she said. She looked around for more openings in the walls. She sighed and sat down. "Hello! Is anybody up there? It's me, Akiko! Somebody please—OW!" Akiko rubbed the back of her head. Something hit her hard on the back of the head. She turned around, and saw Masumi looking angrily at her, holding a rock.

"Don't yell!" she hissed. Akiko looked angrily at Masumi, and mouthed "Why!" to her. "Because you're gonna make Papa mad!" Masumi replied. She sighed and sat down on a rock nearby. "If you really want to get out of here, I'll help you," Masumi said.

Akiko stared blankly at her and instantly forgot about the pain that grow in her head. "R-Really? But…why do you want to help me?" Akiko asked.

Masumi looked gloomily at the floor. "Papa wants to…he's going to do something terrible, I can't say. And…well…I was being a brat earlier today…and you've been so nice to me, and I've never really had….a friend before…" Masumi trailed off. She looked embarrassed.

Akiko stared at her, and then she smiled. "Well then, let's go, shall we?"

Masumi looked up at Akiko and smiled. "Ok, see that hole up there? The reason you can't get out is because there's a seal on it. And since you can't do any ninjitsu or genjitsu in here, there's a hidden rock in here that releases the jutsu, try looking for a huge rock that has markings carved into it,"

Akiko nodded. She walked around the cave again, looking for the rock.

"My Papa moves the rock every 3 weeks…" Masumi said. "So that's why it's hard to find."

After twenty minutes of looking, Akiko spotted a rock with markings carved into it, hiding behind other rocks. She showed it to Masumi and she nodded.

"That's it," she said.

'What does it say?" Akiko asked. She stared strangely at the rock.

"Oh…it doesn't say anything…I accidentally carved pictures in it when I was little…I didn't know that it was Papa's…" Masumi said.

"Oh…good job then," Akiko said. "So…how do we do this thing?" she asked.

"Um…I don't know…." Masumi said.

"YOU DON'T…oh my God…Ok, um…how about this…" Akiko held the rock up and threw it up into the hole. The rock came racing back into the ground and hit the floor. "Or…not…"

After many attempts at trying to open the seal, Akiko was about to give up.

"Why don't you…um…try to…throw it?" Masumi asked. Akiko turned around to face Masumi.

"We've already tried throwing it! It must have been hours so far…looks like the sun is setting…the light is fading," she said. She nodded towards the light streaming into the cave.

"No…I mean…try throwing it…at the walls or something…" Masumi suggested.

'_Well, I really have nothing to lose…'_ Akiko thought. "Here goes…" she sighed. She threw the rock hard at the wall. Then, as if the rock had done something special, the hole in the ceiling of the cave opened up wider and Akiko could feel her chakra coming back to her.

"Whoa…that was…so weird…" she said. Masumi was smiling.

"I knew it!" she remarked. Akiko turned around to look at Masumi.

"Thanks a lot Masumi! Now I can get out of here!" Akiko looked up at the now setting sky and smiled.

"I have to go now anyways. It was nice meeting you, Uzumaki Akiko. I have a feeling that we're gonna meet each other again…" Masumi smiled darkly, and then, faded into the air. Akiko stared at the spot where Masumi was.

"I gotta go…" she said to herself. She jumped high into the air, and left the cave. As soon as she was out, she looked around her. Trees surrounded her, and it was cold that day. The moon was already high in the sky, and the sun was gone. Akiko looked down at her clothes and noticed that all her clothes had rips and tears in them. Her arms and legs were enveloped in blood, and had cuts all over them. And her feet stung with blisters. She pushed a strand of light brown hair out of her face and sighed. Where to go now…?

She noticed that she wasn't at the entrance of the cave either. Or at least, it didn't look like the entrance. The hole that she escaped out of was already going back to its original form.

Akiko glanced at the ground, and saw a kunai knife laying the grass. What it was doing there, she didn't know, but she needed to defend herself, because she didn't know where she was. She picked it up and observed it. There was blood covering the kunai.

'_Was there a battle here…?'_ she asked herself.

She silently crept in the grass, and hid behind some trees. It was going to be hard going back to Konoha in the dark…No, wait. Why Konoha? Why not home?

* * *

YAY! Chapter 8 is done! I think I like this chapter…lol. I like the end. Anyways, here's this chapters question: Do you think Temari does all the housework? I also like the Devdas music...like "Dola Re Dola" and "Maar Dala". In fact, I'm listening to it right now...Anyways! R and R! 


	9. Chapter 9

Welcome to chapter 9 of my story. The reviews and responses are at the bottom because then it takes up a lot of space up here, and then when you're finished the chapter, you can just skip the responses if you want. Anyways, right now, I'm listening to Nami Tamaki's "Believe". What a catchy song, eh? (I am actually listening to "Invoke" by TM Revolution now, I LOVE THIS SONG!)

**Disclaimer: I own Akiko, Hiro, Hisaki, Masumi, Aiko, and all the fake jutsues and fake characters in this story**.

---------------------**Chapter 9- The Plan is Activated**-------------------------

Akiko slumped down on the ground and sighed. She was tired and sick of being the center of attention. It wasn't ever like this in the Sand village. She could hear a faint rustling noise in the distance, but didn't think anything about it. She stared at her hands and thought _'Why me? Of all the damn people out here…this is so pathetic.' _ She stared up at the sky before slowly getting up again. Her clothes were all torn and her arms were bleeding badly.

She thought back to what Masumi said to her about Gaara…Akiko shook her head and thought to herself _'Nah, that's crazy, He so wouldn't come here, I don't even think any one knows I'm here…'_

But she was wrong. She could suddenly wisps of sand trailing past her, circling around her.

"It's been a while, Akiko," A familiar voice said from behind her. Akiko froze. Masumi was right…

Akiko's shock turned into sadness. She didn't turn to look at Gaara, nor say anything. The sand around her circled more closely to her.

She blinked slowly and looked in front of her. She sighed; she couldn't take it any more.

"Why…why is it…that you always know where I am…or…when something bad happens?" she asked Gaara. Gaara said nothing and closed his eyes. Then, something Akiko thought would never, ever happen- Gaara pulled her closer to him and whispered in her ear.

"Do I need to explain?"

* * *

"Dammit! Where is she! Sakura-chan, we've looked all over! That's it, we should have just stayed where that freaky Gaara was! I'm going back!" 

Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Hinata searched (once again) all over Konoha. Naruto was so fed up at this point, that he couldn't take it any more. No one tried to stop him when he left. Hinata ran after him.

Sasuke looked over at Sakura. She looked very tired, but she seemed like she didn't want to give up.

"Sakura…are you okay?" Sasuke asked her. Sakura looked over at Sasuke and smiled wearily.

"Yeah, I'm fine Sasuke-kun," she replied happily.

He looked down at the ground for a minute and then walked over to Sakura and gently held her hand. Sakura stared at Sasuke and then smiled.

"Sasuke-kun, I have something I want to ask you," Sakura finally said. This question had been on her mind for ages, and she still didn't have the answer to it. "Um…how to say this…Are you still in love with Akiko?" she asked him. Sasuke looked mildly surprised at her question, but he didn't say anything. He pulled her into a hug and kissed her gently on the forehead.

"Sasuke…kun?" Sakura asked. Sasuke looked away from Sakura and then looked back at Sakura.

"I think he should go now, Naruto must be waiting for us, don't you think?"

* * *

"Alright, it's done Papa, she's gone."

Masumi sat down on a rock in the same cave Akiko had been in and smiled. The cuts on her arms slowly dug out of her arms and began bleeding again.

Hiro floated past Masumi and chuckled. Everything was going according to plan. He would human again…he would be able to come back to life once again…he was getting excited.

"Finally…I've waited for this for years…" he muttered to himself.

"But Papa, why a girl? And why that particular girl?" Masumi asked confusion in her face.

Hiro smiled. "That girl is strong…Also…her brother has the demon fox sealed within him…the jinchuuriki are hard to control…so she was perfect…"

Masumi looked down at the ground and thought about the things that she had said to Akiko. She hated being in that same place with that girl for a whole day. She hated doing stuff like that for her father…she didn't want to make friends, she wasn't even alive.

* * *

Akiko pulled away from Gaara and turned to face him. Her dark, little eyes scanned him. He looked the same…Akiko on the other hand…her hair seemed almost black in the night sky. She looked down at her torn clothes and her arms. They stung with pain.

She shook her head.

"No, that can't happen. It's not supposed to. I'm going home Gaara…this place is way too…strange for me, I think someone's after me, Gaara…I always see things and end up getting hurt," she said. She looked up at Gaara's eyes and then looked away. She then thought about what she just said and blushed.

"I mean, no that's not what I meant, um, I mean, forget what I said Gaara, oh shit…" she trailed off. She sounded like an insane person (no pun intended).

Gaara pulled her closer to him again. He wrapped his arms around her waist and closed his eyes.

"Shut up," he whispered to her. He himself had no clue what he was doing. He never felt this way with any other girl. Was it because he knew Akiko for a long time? Or was it because he felt that he needed to protect her all the time? He found it confusing…he didn't know a lot about things like this.

Akiko remained silent, once again, shocked. Who was this guy! Gaara would never do this to her…Or would he? Akiko snuggled closer to him. She was realizing something to at that moment. That she…never wanted to leave Gaara in the first place.

* * *

Neji, Tenten and Shikamaru stopped running. It had been hours since they split up with Naruto. Had Naruto succeeded in finding Akiko by now? Neji tried using his Byakugan for searching for Akiko, but he didn't see any trace of her. They had stopped many times, but hadn't found any trace of Akiko. Shikamaru was beginning to think about some other plans, but none came to his mind yet. 

Right now, they were resting on the forest floor, trying to think of something else. Night already settled in. If they didn't hurry back home, people would start to worry, but they needed to find Naruto and the others and find out what happened.

Tenten was breathing heavily. They had been running and searching all day, she was tired. But she didn't want to act weak in front of Neji, or he would probably say something mean to her. And she didn't want to seem weak in front of Shikamaru either. She had never been on a mission with him before, and she didn't want to seem weak in front of him so fast either.

She glanced back at the two boys and found Shikamaru sitting on a log, deep in thought. Neji was looking up at the night sky, thinking. Tenten sighed and looked down at the ground. She was sure that she was holding them both back, they would be better off without her, and plus she was really tired, she really wanted to rest.

But she didn't want to seem depressed or weak in front of Neji either. So, she decided to stop being so gloomy and think in high spirits. She didn't want to disturb Shikamaru's thinking, when so many people said he was so smart, so she walked over to Neji.

Neji sensed her a few feet behind him, and he turned around to look at her. Tenten smiled happily at him.

"Hey, what's up?" she asked him. She smiled again at him. He narrowed his eyes a bit and replied with "Nothing,"

Tenten's smile vanished for a couple of seconds. She looked down at the ground. She had to think about something to talk about!

Neji looked over to her when she was looking down at the ground. He never noticed how pretty Tenten in the moonlight…Oh God, what was he thinking! This was Tenten for Pete's sake! He quickly looked away and lightly blushed.

Tenten glanced over to look at Neji. He was looking back up at the starry night sky, deep in thought. She never admitted it, but she had the biggest crush on Neji. She never knew why she liked him. Maybe it was that personality of his that drew her towards him. He was one of those guys who never really told you anything about them; they didn't care much about anything.

She looked over to Shikamaru who was still deep in thought. He was drawing what seemed like some sort of plan in the ground with a stick. He didn't even notice Tenten was looking at him. Tenten looked down at her hands and noticed that she had small, catlike cuts on them. She probably got them while she was in the trees. The cuts didn't even hurt, no wonder she didn't feel anything.

Neji looked back at Tenten and noticed that she was looking down at her hands. He saw small cuts slowly bleeding their way out of her hands and he turned to her.

"What happened to you?" he asked. Tenten looked up at him and blushed.

"N-Nothing…It's nothing," she said. She put her hands down and quickly looked away.

'_Shit! Now he'll think I'm so weak that…that…dammit, I can't think about it!' _ She yelled at herself in her head.

Neji noticed her blush and smiled to himself. He looked back at her and wanted so badly to be alone with Tenten right now. There it was again. That annoying feeling! It kept on crawling back to him every now and then.

He shook his head and tried to clear his mind.

'_Geez…this girl…'_

_

* * *

_Gaara held Akiko for a couple of minutes. The wind picked up and Akiko shivered a little. Gaara held her tighter. Then, he noticed something on the back of Akiko's neck.

There was a long cut on the back of her neck, it wasn't bleeding anymore though. The cut stretched from one end of her neck to the other. It looked like someone had used a knife against her neck. Akiko didn't even notice this on her neck though.

"What happened here?" Gaara asked. Akiko broke away from Gaara and felt the back of her neck with her hand. She had a look of confusion on her face.

"I…I don't know…" she said. It didn't even hurt, she didn't even feel anything. But the strangest thing that happened was when Akiko removed her hand, she looked at her hand, it was covered with blood.

"What…what the…what's happening?" she asked, her voice slightly rising. Gaara walked around her and looked at her neck. No blood was coming out. How could this be happening?

Akiko could feel something strange happening to her. She thought she was going to be sick. She turned towards Gaara and looked into his eyes.

"Some...something…" she started. Gaara grabbed her before she fell down. She started feeling so weak. She closed her eyes slowly.

"Akiko!" Gaara asked. As Gaara held her in his arms, he could feel her skin growing cold.

"I…I don't know…Help me, please Gaara…" Akiko whispered. Then, something strange happened.

The cut on the back of Akiko's neck did open up this time. Blood flowed out. Akiko grabbed Gaara's hand with the last ounce of strength she had left.

Suddenly, Akiko could see nothing. She could hear nothing. Everything around her went black. She stayed like that for a couple of minutes.

'_No…what's happening? Someone help me!' _ She thought. But no one could hear her cries. Suddenly, she could hear someone laughing. She had heard this voice before….

"Finally…after years of waiting…" it started.

Akiko suddenly awoke with a start. Gaara was kneeling beside Akiko, his head bowed down. Sand was swirling around him, rapidly.

Akiko sat up suddenly and looked around her. She was where she was before. But…what was that voice that had spoken to her before? Gaara looked up at her. The sand stopped swirling and fell to the ground. Akiko looked around wide-eyed, breathing heavily. She put her hand on her chest and tried to calm down.

She felt so different now. She didn't feel like Akiko at this moment…No, she felt different.

Gaara sighed and looked at the night sky. Who was doing this to Akiko? Akiko suddenly felt completely different now. She couldn't speak for some odd reason now. She got up and walked a few steps. She looked up at the night sky. Suddenly, Gaara could see what was wrong. The cuts and scrapes on Akiko's body were growing bigger. More blood flowed out. Akiko's eyes clouded with darkness. Gaara could see a dark aura form around her. Her eyes turned into dark pools.

Her back was still turned towards Gaara, but Gaara knew something was wrong with her.

Suddenly, out of no where, Masumi walked towards Akiko. Akiko put one hand towards her eyes and cried. Masumi walked towards Gaara and stopped in front of him.

"We'll be taking her back now. My papa has finally taken copy of her emotions, thanks to you, maybe we'll see you later," Masumi said. She picked up dirt from the ground and threw it towards Gaara. The dirt instantly turned into long spears with blood covered on them and they raced towards Gaara. Gaara easily crushed them with his sand. When the sand went back into his gourd he saw Akiko standing towards him. She kneeled down and pulled out a long, silver metal pipe out of the ground. The pipe had long spikes attached to it. The spikes were curvy, some were straight. Akiko got up and didn't look at Gaara again. Instead, she looked towards the side. Someone was coming…

* * *

Naruto raced towards the spot where Gaara had been. Hinata was somewhere close by, following Naruto. Sasuke and Sakura were back somewhere, following Hinata. 

'_Damn that guy…I'm gonna kill him!' _Naruto thought angrily. Finally, when he reached the place where Gaara was standing, he could see Gaara staring wide-eyed, staring at Akiko. When he looked over at Akiko…she was completely different from when he knew her. Her face showed no emotion and she was holding some sort of weapon…The freakiest thing about it was that…_Akiko was looking at him. _

Naruto landed down on the ground, followed seconds later by Hinata and minutes later by Sasuke and Sakura. Naruto looked at Akiko with fear in his eyes. What was going on?

"A-Akiko? Wh-What happened?" Naruto asked. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Akiko didn't respond to him or even blink.

"_Yes…kill him…Let's see your power…let's see you kill one of your own..." _A voice whispered in her mind. Akiko couldn't think at all. She couldn't speak. She couldn't move her own body. In fact, she didn't even know herself. All she knew what that she had to obey _his _commands. Whatever he says, you do it. Whoever he was…

Akiko stared into Naruto's blue eyes. She raised her hand, and threw her weapon towards him. It sped with amazing speed towards him; he couldn't even see it in the air anymore. He knew it was somewhere…suddenly, he could hear a whirring sound from above him and he looked up. The metal pipe was racing towards him. He was going to be hit any second now…

* * *

Masumi chuckled as she saw Akiko attack her brother. As soon as Akiko let go of her weapon, Masumi disappeared into the air again. She reappeared in the same cave and sat down on a rock. 

She held open her hands and a crystal ball formed into her hands. Suddenly, a ball of white shining light raced towards the crystal ball and landed softly inside the crystal ball. The crystal ball closed over the white ball and Masumi smiled. Akiko's soul was now hers. Hiro's plan had worked. Akiko was dead. Her soul had been ripped out of her body and Hiro was now controlling her with his soul. The needle had worked.

When Masumi had kicked the sand at Akiko, she hid a small needle inside the dirt. It cut Akiko on her neck and inside crawled a special beetle Hiro had made. It recorded Akiko's emotions so Hiro would be able to use them.

Now all that was left…was Hisaki's part.

* * *

Neji, Tenten and Shikamaru left the forest behind and were heading towards the edge of the forest that was on the edge of Konoha village. They had heard yells coming from the there and they were going to investigate. As soon as they arrived there, they found two dead leaf ninjas on the ground. There was no sign of a struggle anywhere… 

"What…what happened here!" Shikamaru asked. His eyes were wide open. _'Something is here…'_ he thought. Neji was using his Byakugan to see through the trees to see if there was anybody else there.

"No one's here…" he said. Tenten looked horrified at the bodies. They had been sliced up pretty bad…

Suddenly, all three of them stopped doing what they were doing. They heard an eerie chuckle wisp through the trees. The temperature started to drop; it suddenly became as cold as ice.

"What's going on?" asked Tenten, scared. Neji activated his Byakugan again and looked through the trees once more. Nothing was there.

"See me yet…? Heh heh heh," asked the eerie voice. Suddenly, thick fog surrounded them; they couldn't see anything through it.

"Neji! Where are you?" yelled Tenten. Neji didn't reply, he was trying to see through the fog, but for some reason, he couldn't.

"I have the ability to take away your powers…" started the voice. Neji could hear the voice coming seemingly close.

"…and give them back to you,"

Suddenly, Neji could see through the fog using his Byakugan. He gasped, horrified at what he saw.

"Neji! What is it!" Shikamaru asked, through the fog. He couldn't see anything either.

Neji saw a man dressed up as a jester. Neji squinted his eyes, was he seeing things? The man had white paint on his face and he was wearing a hat with bells. His hands had large cuts on them, which bled freely and he was wearing small, strange shoes. He was also carrying a large axe in his hand and a small knife in his other hand. He was grinning at them, showing his large white teeth. Blood dripped out from the corners of his mouth. He had blond hair under his hat.

"Hisaki Motou…is my name," started the man. He raised his arm that held his axe. "And I'm here to kill you…" he finished in a sing-song voice. Suddenly, Neji could hear Tenten screaming. Shikamaru was cursing under his breath. The fog drifted away, and Neji could see Tenten and Shikamaru with looks of fear on their faces. When he looked up, he saw two more duplicates of Hisaki standing in front of them, their axes raised.

The main Hisaki spoke up.

"Welcome to the realm of my world…"

* * *

Masumi looked up at the ceiling of the roof. The roof opened up again. She held the crystal ball carefully in her hands, and floated to the top.

"My turn…"

* * *

And that's it for chapter 9! Sorry if there was some Gaara OOC in here O.o;; And there's some weird parts in here...er...yeah. Oh my God, school starts tomorrow -.-;; I am so very scared. My first day in High School (I'm going in grade 8). Anyways, here's the question…hmm… 

Do you think Gaara has a favorite animal? O.o;; I know it's a silly question, but…it's…so…interesting to know… .

Ahem, anyways…

**Aznpuffyhair: **Yes, she's dead. The clown's name is Hisaki, he's Masumi's cousin. Lol, nothing is wrong with him, he didn't get into a battle. Sakura stopped Naruto from fighting him. And the girl's arm was covered in blood because her dad cut her up and…well, maybe you don't want to know.

**Agent Vash:** PFFT, yeah. And she like, hid something in it. What a clever girl, lol. Not. Shikato and Shikamaru? I wonder what their mom's name is then. Shi…um…laru? LMAO. Yeah, that's him. LOL, if they had maids, Kankuro would probably not be virgin by now then…either that or they have some pretty ugly maids. Rofl!

**Kagome13Chan:** XD thanks!

**Rikki-Boy:** Lol, if he does all the work, then shouldn't he have lost some weight by now then, or has she been recently made him do the chores? LOL sexy shirtless men! Ha ha ha!

**FanstasyFreak:** LOL, yeah! She would be like "Kankuro, wash the dishes!" and then he's be all like "Why me? Make Gaara do them!" and she's be like "hell no, are you crazy? He'll kill me!" Ha ha ha.

**Anonymous:** LOL yeah XDD like Akiko "Hey, I'll pay you if you do my laundry," Like taking candy from a baby. Strangely, it does also remind me of The Ring, I haven't watched that movie in a while though. And yeah, they really don't like Naruto, makes me sad. Though, Hinata really loves him. You should read my sisters stories, her pen name is Complexity66 or something like that. Lol, everyone has a good side Gaara so does too. Lol.

**Sephynarutocloud:** Yes! I was wondering where you went! Lol!

Thanks everyone else for reading and reviewing! Review please!


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